Lunar Knights: A Gesture of Faith
by SvarogAllen
Summary: Inspired by numerous songs, chapters from the future of the Lunar Knights world rest here. The Vampires will not take the Duke's fall sitting, and others have worked their means to involve themselves in this war... Blood, Guts, Death, and more.
1. Phantom Stranger

Inspired by Rob Zombie's 'Phantom Stranger'

"Regen Eternum Donda Aae, Dominae..."

"Reluse perpetua lucia ae."

"Regi sosept, inpact, anima aeus, ani me omnium pedavium, ducantodo. Fermisaracordium..."

As the priest and his acolyte uttered the incantations writ in blood within their scriptures, the acolyte speaking little, only finishing incantations her white-haired priest began before cutting off, they could feel the moon's light beginning to spill over the mountains into the cities within them, into Acuna, Culiacan, and all the like there was, the church bells ringing loudly in the distance, the graveyard echoing the bells rings, and then the many rings that began following, the massive organ within the church beginning to bellow with the chanting of the spell, the symbol of darkness printed on the back of the books beginning to glow brightly with the further incantation of the spell... and then went dead silent, the Priest and Acolyte alike stopping and clapping their books shut, both gray haired man in black and red robes and his assistant of blond hair in shorter, identical robes to match her height, stepping back from the cross-topped grave they stood before, a grave dug many long years before, back in the days the Vampires and nobles still occupied this portion of the land.

The tombstone at the top of the grave, the massive, crooked cross, seemed eerily strong on this night as the moon continued to rise, the incantation seeming to have failed as the pale moonlight fell across the graveyard, sliding across the graves, and into the farther reaches of the hill-covered land to the far north of any other city, a more rural area somewhere near the Santa Cecilia station... the Priest sighed and removed his cap, kissing the medallion in the shape of the dark emblem in his hand with his sigh of defeat after casting the spell, a weak look of loss creeping across his Acolyte's face as she spoke.

"But... it was perfect... we brought all the bones and ashes... we cast the incantation at the time that was recorded... so why didn't it work?"

"I do not know child, but all I am aware of is that this land will never be the same without this man alive... nothing will be the same..."

As the man said this, he looked up at the engraving at the cross-shaped tombstone, a carving that read,

"Here Lies the Devil In Flesh, the Reaper before and after Jack, the man feared even by the Vampires... the Phantom Stranger."

He read these words aloud as the moonlight flowed over his shoulders... and then was cast onto the tombstone. He closed his lips slowly, and lowered his head from the tombstone, no longer viewing the engraving... but then becoming eerily aware of something strange about the tombstone... he looked closely, his eyes tracing what he thought was crimson light on the tombstone to it's base.. and he saw it, spinning around to see crimson spreading across the moon's surface, like an ocean of blood drowning the craters of the moon, casting a deep red light on the graveyard around them.

In that moment, the dark emblem medallion between his fingers began to glow again, vibrant with life, and reacting to it's source, it rose, pointing first at the large cross, the tombstone at the head of the grave... and then pointing to the grave itself, the Priest beginning to whimsically and excitedly speak in mumbles and fiddle with his fingers, tucking his book under his arm as he approached the grave, holding the medallion's chain with one hand and following it as it floated toward the still grave while he waited for the result of his incantations. His Acolyte seemed exactly the opposite, beginning to shy away from the now crimson light casting onto the grave, the organ and bells ringing in her ears giving the ominous feel of... death, to her body, and sending it down her spines.

And she was right.

Death had paid them a visit.

The night was filled with a horrible screech that made both Priest and Acolyte jump as it passed through their ears, the girl wrapping her arms around herself while the Priest stumbled back, suddenly shivering with fear as he wondered what he had done, rumbling rising from the grave with the rising dark power building within it's presence... red cracks shot through the earth and dirt surrounding the grave, and further began to shoot up the surface of the tombstone at his grave, splitting it open and cutting off one of the massive stone's arms, dropping with a thud into the darkness filled dirt as more red light flowed from the rising grave, dirt beginning to rise and push aside with the dark power that came with it...

And then he was. First it was just a hand... then it was more, the skeletal fingers rising from within the dirt, nothing but bone, and flexing above the surface, closing into a fist and opening again... and beginning to grow. The Dark power with the dead hand began to swirl around it, bit by bit replenishing the skin that was devoured by the worms and the earth and the passing of time within his grave for many years, first the skin being light and pale, long nails rising from the firm hand rising from the dirt. Then a blue tint stained the skin. The blue tint of Vampirism. The hand tightened again, and swung aside, digging into dirt, and rising further, the man's shoulder slowly rising out of the grave, and soon to follow, was his head, still half skeleton, dirt rolling out of the half-bone of the dead man while he dragged himself out of the grave, his one eye rolling around madly, until his second eye form, the blank, gray of his eyes now becoming a deep crimson.

It was as if he was never executed.

The priest knew him then. This avid killer, this worshipper of dark powers, and yet a human all at the same time... as he was, over thirty years past. Now, with his revival, this nameless man, the one they called the Phantom Stranger at the time, would be an undead, a vampire, among the legions of night... and maybe, just maybe, he would restore the fear to mankind in the night, to give them a reason to seek refuge in his church once more, as they did then. The old priest took a step back as the man pulled himself out of the grave, his other half of his body beginning to form, his slim, thin figure stretching out across the dirt as muscle, and then blue, dead skin formed upon him, his mouth parting to reveal his forming gums, and dirt falling from his teeth to expose gleaming fangs, the dead man howling in pain as he changed, long nails becoming claws, his body painfully changing into the beast of the night that the church swore against... this was with a reason though. This Vampire would belong to the church.

The Church's Holy Vampire.

"!?"

The Priest would find these thoughts far from his mind as the reborn man's hand shot from his side, seizing the bottom of the man's robes, and his bald head, soon no longer very bald, rising up to see the priest with his deep crimson mind, his brain quickly making it's formation... and with it, recreating his memories, this indirect birth into undeadism having no affect onto his memories, as he regained the ability to speak... to think, to allow his body to function, taking a long, deep breath with his long dead lungs, his wild, gray hair falling around his shoulders and eyes as he looked up at the priest, he snarled...

"...You kill me... then you bring me back? And you're all alone as you do this too..." He smiled, his fangs gleaming brightly as he let go of the priest's robes, the priest beginning to stumble backwards, gasping at the fact that the man remembered, remembered that he was the one who ordered the Phantom's execution, and rising to his feet, his naked body now entirely reassembled, his tall, skinny form towering far above the priest, whose eyes dilated with his fear, his jaw falling open, and the demon he revived grinning brightly with glowing eyes..

"You'll wish you never revived me soon, priest.."

Then the priest ran, shrieking in fear and dropping his book, his medallion dropping as well as he turned and stumbled across the graveyard, not stopping to look back to see if the man was chasing him, which he wasn't... at the time, the newly born dead was examining his new body, dark power rolling off his fingers at his whim... he used it to reconstruct the clothes he had lost to time after his death, a thin, purple button-up shirt forming over his sleek torso, paired with a odd-pair of slim, yet silky pair of slacks, and a silver belt, a corset forming over his stomach and lower chest, paired with large cuffs and a choker around his neck... all paired with a long, twin-tailed coat that formed over the man's torso, it's tail hanging to the back of his knees like a cape... and raising his claws, he clicked them together, grinning to himself at his new body...

"It's beautiful being alive again... don't you agree?" He hissed at the girl standing behind him, turning, and looking over his shoulder with bright crimson eyes as a thick mist began to gather around him, the crimson moonlight obscuring him even further in the dark as he turned around, the girl yelping, and while she wanted to run, she was rooted to the ground. Literally, not just by fear, looking down and screaming to see long, gnarled roots... no, Bony hands! They clung to her ankles tightly, not budging as she attempted to pull free, looking up to see an approaching form of crimson swinging it's long arms out as it approached her, wearing a long, vibrantly fanged smile..

"I'm very hungry... I've been asleep for so long... won't you feed me?"

The girl's scream even reached the priest as he rushed through the cathedral doors, which began to close behind him as he hurried down the center isle of purple carpet, past the many benches on either side of the room, a low creaking rising from the door as it slid closed... only to blow open again, bright crimson light flowing into the cathedral, and the priest turning around in fear to see a distorted, morphing form flowing into the Cathedral, and down the isle... only to take solid form, morphing into the familiar man he had killed over thirty years ago, and revived less than thirty minutes ago, once he began to draw near, the priest falling behind the altar at the church head, and seeing the Phantom's shade, being his shadow, draw ever closer, and even while his form stayed, it's did not, shape shifting in countless different monstrous forms...

"Oh.. that girl was quite tasty, my old friend... old Alexander... however... I'm still hungry. Tell me, does revenge make blood sweeter?"

This voice came from over the altar, and the priest found his back to a bench as the Phantom Stranger's shadow drew to a close... and then with a snarl, the gray-haired undead bound over the altar, arms out stretched, and in the seconds before the monster seized him, Alexander shrieked...

Then the church was silent.

"Thirty Yearsssss..."

With the taste of blood young and new on his tongue, the phantom dressed in violet strode down the mist filled streets of Acuna with hunger in his throat and belly, the calling of the crimson moon overhead... he had learned a valuable lesson. The younger the being, and the purer the body... the better the blood. His crimson eyes were constantly open as to find many unsuspecting victims among the mist as he walked among them, but at the same time, entirely aware of his own presence, and his pale blue skin...

"Is that a Va-"

The moment one vulpid began to utter this to a friend, the stranger had been gone, a whorl of dust kicking up in the place he had been as he vanished, leaving no trace of his presence in the night, except for those with a keen nose... the stench of the recently dead. No one would explain it... and no one would need to. Soon enough, it would all piece together. It would all come together, within an hour of his arrival, forty minutes before.. the hungry Phantom would peer upon a scared young girl with a bag of groceries tucked in her arms as she began down the street.. not afraid of the dead, but of the men who stalked the night, and what they may do to her... she was wrong to fear such insignificance.

"Eee!"

She screeched as the man fell into the street before the girl, the woman dropping her groceries and turning to run. 'Just as anticipated.' He thought as he began gliding after his meal, licking his lips once she ducked into the alley, and then he knew, he had her right where he wanted her. The girl ran into the far wall of the alley, shrieking and crying at the man who approached her to not hurt her, to not rape her, to not do anything like that to her as she shrunk away, but seizing the girl's chin with a single hand, the Phantom grinned, his fangs gleaming, and he said to her,

"...I will make it as quick and painless as possible then, simply because I enjoy your voice..."

When they would find the woman, she would already be dead. Her expression reflecting her final moments as a bundle of ecstasy, eyes hazed, tongue rolled out and drool pooling down her chin, her hazed eyes rolled back, and her body warm with heat... as well as some other wet places, but these were all minor compared to what the Guildsmen who discovered her found. With blood spilling around her head, they could see the two large bite marks visible right in her neck, draining her of her blood, or what was left of it, into the pool around her.

They knew, within one hour of the Phantom's arrival, that a vampire was now in their city. This night was no longer safe. The night was no longer safe. Not as long as the Phantom stranger continued to exist.

Guildsmen stalked the streets. But with such inexperienced warriors among them, they were just as easy picking as regular civilians, the Guildsmen solar gunslingers attempting to keep this mission to themselves... but soon enough, they were calling for assistance..

A certain man with a mission would be coming to meet them, and the Solar Boy apprentice would be joining the Dark Swordsman that night as well.

"Fifteen dead? You Guildsmen aren't very good at this.."

"No. This Vampire's better than we expected, unfortunately. We sent in mostly rookies... we didn't think someone dumb enough to come attack us on our home ground would be this.. skilled."

As the violet-haired Lucian spoke to Ernest, the man fixed his dark-coat over his black and red-trim armor, the eye-patch wearing man looking to the brown-haired goggle wearer with him in a red vest and dark shorts, his coat of violet, reminiscent of a Gunslinger's old one, tightly zipped up on him, his boots clicking against the ground just like Lucian's own. In Aaron's hand, a large, shotgun-like solar gun, in Lucian's, the gleaming blade of the Dark Sword, Vanargand. With one, the Darkness enhancing Terrennial cat, Nero, the other, the literal sunflower Terrennial of the sun, Toasty.

They did not prepare. The came on short notice, so no other Terrennial currently was with them, but the Dark Swordsman was confident. He felt fine without them, though the Solar apprentice could not say the same. Up to speed on what had happened, both set out into the city night, waiting for the eyes of the wandering dead hiding in their city to find them.. and they did.

A ringing came from an alleyway ahead, Aaron raising his solar gun, and looking to Lucian, who nodded, the swordsman allowing Aaron to rush ahead, solar gun raised, first aiming into the alley, and then running into it to examine it... he didn't realize until the moment Aaron was gone that he was alone. With a leap, he jumped aside to avoid the dropping Phantom as he floated from the rooftops, the purple-clothed being raising his very long arms from the ground, and grinning, Lucian finding himself having to look up at the man from his incredible height... and he cursed. What kind of Vampire was this?

One with great reach. His head was seized before he saw it coming, the Vampire hissing as it picked up Lucian and swung him, throwing him face first into the side of a building, where a sickening crunch came from his broken nose, blood spilling from it as he fell back against the wall... only to be pinned to it again, the Phantom hissing into Lucian's ear, and then leaping away in time to avoid the explosion of the Bomber shot from Aaron, the shape-shifting form of the Phantom becoming viewed for the first time...

It was so maleable, even as Lucian's sword came at him, the shadowy-body stretched, and the blade swung through the open space, the shadowy form solidifying again, and seizing the risen vampire hunter, and hurling him at Aaron just as the solar boy fired his now drawn witch, the Phantom laughing to himself and bounding aside... only to have the missile strike his side, screeching in pain as his shoulder began to disintegrate into nothing...

He snarled, attempting to recover from the strike, and being fully aware of the Dark Swordsman lunging at him, the Phantom leaping back to avoid one sword swing, while sidestepping another, a long trail of light afterimages following him as he hopped away, clutching his injured shoulder, with Lucian right on that trail, raising his vanargand again and whipping it at the Phantom's throat, a snarl rising in the said Phantom as he leaned back to allow the tip of the Vanargand to pass by his neck with less than an inch...

His left arm transformed then, a wicked black shadow lunging out and wrapping around Lucian's stomach then, lifting him up and whipping the man aside, tossing him into the side of another building to make some distance, and then the Phantom's form twisting into shadow, diving away from the oncoming missiles of the solar boy's witch, which he managed to escape from by luck, the missiles energy running dead just before reaching him...

"..Fine. I shall leave then... I have only just come back into life. I shall not die here... no, I shall not..."

A whorl of dust shot up as Aaron raised his Solar Gun again, seeing nothing... and hearing nothing, the blood-red light fading from the moon, and the mist peeling away from the acuna night with the absence of the Vampire, he made a jog toward the fallen Dark Swordsman, crouching down to help Lucian, who cursed, shaking his head.

"What the hell was..."

"I wish I knew, Lucian.."

"... It wasn't one of his, was it?"

"..If anything, I would think Dumas would be against that Phantom..."

"Yeah, I guess so."

In the remains of the Dark Castle Auguste, the Phantom stood with his hand on his arm, dark power slowly repairing his destroyed shoulder, and he looked at the destruction, and the fallen Planet Eater that had collapsed onto the castle... so much had changed since he was gone...

"More to get used to... just means more prey to sink my fangs into, just like before.." He laughed to himself, swinging his healed arms across each other over his waist, beginning to laugh.

"In thirty years since my execution, so much has changed... I'm still surprised at how similar things are..." A wicked grin spread across the man's lips as he said this, crossing his long arms and legs, and leaning his head back, crimson eyes gleaming as he looked up at the full moon.

"I'll put the fear of ghosts into people again.. I'll be sure of that."


	2. Foxy Foxy

Inspired by Rob Zombie's Foxy Foxy

"Foxy Foxy..."

The man mumbled this to himself as the car he sat in the back of rolled down the streets with a quick, 'Get the hell out of my way' sort of demeanor. He said this in reference to the many women he saw walking up and down the sidewalks on either side of the street, because no matter where he looked, each girl seemed to be fairly beautiful or physically gifted. Curvy, swinging hips and round, bouncing breasts were found to be seen on each woman in revealing clothing that went up and down the streets, and the man whistled to himself. This city was known as a city of beauty for many reasons, this was just one of them.

The thing was, he knew more then half of the women he saw however, weren't human at all. That didn't mean much to him though. He observed this feature in countless women he viewed across his travels, whether they be alien, refugees who came to live on this planet out of fear of events taking place on their own planet, or being one of the natural terrors on this planet itself. The Vampires. Looking out his window again, into the jet black night pierced only by dim lights shining from lamps and buildings joined to the sidewalk, the man could easily see the pale blue skin that was trademark of the nobles.

It seemed that even here the nobles enjoyed cutting loose though. Any noble woman he saw, or, Vampire woman, seeing as that's what they were, was scantily dressed. Some wore short-shorts, some wore jeans so low he could see panty-lines, and some... didn't wear pants at all, to his surprise. The rules of the Vampire city were obviously very lenient toward the nobles.

He kept observing, noting the many pairs of firm, jiggly breasts he knew he'd love to sink his face into if he ever got the chance, some hardly covered, some covered entirely yet not enough to mask their heavy bounces, women dressed in tank-tops, some in shorts with nothing but their bras on, some in sweaters that pulled nicely against their endowed chests...

The young man found himself licking his lips while running a hand through his dark brown hair, brushing thin strands out of his eyes and leaning back into his seat again, looking away from the window. He wasn't hear on booty watch, so he attempted to keep himself in control, tugging on the tie he was required to wear to the particular event he was visiting. On this side of the world, things like this were quite common, but even so he hated dressing fancily, currently in a neat suit, a coat and pair of slacks of navy blue with a light blue undershirt, clashing these blue clothes with a red tie.

On this side of the world, things were much different than the existing iron-fisted rule of the Culiacan nobles, or, what was the iron-fisted rule of the vampires. News had reached him through the 'pipeline', as he called it, a system of gossip and underground information a little over two weeks ago. It revealed to him the destruction of the Vampire city of New Culiacan, and of the Parasol the immortals had supplied to them to grant them eternal night. Of course, this also meant nothing to him. In this city, even without the ParaSol's influence, night rang out eternally thanks to the dark magic surrounding the immense city. An eternal night was an old idea, and the workings of barbaric Vampires meant nothing to a simple weapons dealer like him.

At least, people thought he was a simple weapons dealer. The blue eyed man sat back in his seat again, his white gloved hand reaching into his suit coat and drawing his glasses from within them, the rectangular lenses tinted black, and sliding them on over his eyes with a simple motion of his hand. He noted as the car began to slow, that he was nearing his place of meeting with his customer. This simple weapon's dealer was more than a simple weapons dealer, to be obvious by this night. The slower the car became, the closer the man knew they were, and unlocking his door, he didn't even wait until the car was fully stopped before hopping out of it, listening to it screech to a halt once it went a few feet without him in it. He walked up to it, closing the door, then tapped on the trunk of the black car a few times, bringing his arm back to let the trunk fly open.

Sitting in it was a large black case. He seized it by it's handle, and lifted the case out of the car, closing the trunk behind him, and using his free hand to gesture with his thumb, the driver seeing him in the rear view mirror and driving off. He would return in thirty minutes to pick him up.

Even after living here for all this time, the beauty of this place still overwhelmed the man as he looked out into the night sky, the crescent moon shining it's brilliant light onto the golden city, the only one of it's kind, where it could be truly said that man and human, and even alien, could live together in harmony. Man and Vampire lived side by side in this place, with no prejudices, and no ideas of one over the other. Status was decided by ability and resources here, and if you had those, you had followers. If you had followers, you had power.

In this city, if he were to be judged among all the many people living in the city of brilliance and beauty, oddly yet exotically crafted buildings seeming to glow in their twisting shapes in the night sky, this particular man would be among the top five most powerful men and women in the city, all the others being vampires. He was the most powerful human in the city, and the fourth most powerful being in the whole city by status, and he was proud of it.

In the city of Appullus, the man known as Cain was in charge, and everyone knew it. If they didn't like him... there were things he could do to make people vanish, just as he knew that those above him could deal with him just as easily. He held no quarrels however. He simply enjoyed allowing his business to bloom, just like on this night, where a new customer wished to call him to this place to conduct business. How this customer knew he had the weapon told him first of all that this one was quite different from most of his regulars, it told him secondly, that he or she was quite resourceful.

Forging new friendships was all part of business. By building a friendship with whatever this particular vampire (That was all he knew about his customer) had going, he could probably push himself into the third place spot, and he was looking forward to that. Turning around, he found him standing before the front doors of a massive, skyscraper-like hotel, spiraling high into the sky. He'd spent more than one night himself in this hotel in his early years, often on failed attempts to seduce women more than business. Hey, it was hard for a human to get some in this city, but at least he tried, and he was proud of it.

Cain shoved his hand in his pocket, laughing at his memories of this place and producing a thin note scribbled on a piece of ripped paper with his white-gloved fingers, he read the number "128" and nodded at the meaning of that. The One-hundred floors were ten floors up, so he immediately headed for the elevator on the way in, his fancy, polished shoes clicking against the tile floor. Looking around, he noticed the humans working in this building gave him nods of recognition, knowing him from his times staying here, or merely from his status, but knowing him nonetheless, allowing him to pass into the already open elevator. It seemed to be open for him, but pushing his way in before the door closed, this was said otherwise by a woman standing in the elevator.

She looked at him, and he looked at her, smiling at the brown-haired vampire girl in a pink-colored silky dress, and the girl smiling back. If he had been a year or two younger, the girl's fangs probably would of unnerved the man, but he was used to them by now, pressing in the button for the tenth floor as the elevator began to move, the girl getting off on the sixth floor, and leaving him alone until the tenth floor of the hotel, the elevator coming to a silent stop.

He was off the elevator the moment the doors opened, holding the case in his right hand even tighter now as he began down the hallway, counting up the door numbers until he came to where he needed to be. Cain made sure he checked the paper and number on the door again before knocking, tapping the back of his left hand against the door, and waiting for a response, hearing the click of the lock as the doorknob turned, and then the door itself sliding partially open, inviting the man to come in on his own.

He pushed the door open, and closed it behind him once he entered the hotel room, noting the closed closet right beside him on one side in the doorway to the room, and the door to the bathroom on the other side of the door which was open, the lights turned on, but was empty. He shrugged, and began into the room, already noting immediately the vampire bodyguards this particular customer had positioned about the room once he came into view, the Vampire sitting at the back of the room, next to the table positioned by the window.

"So you're the customer?"

Cain asked this sarcastically, the spike-haired blond vampire narrowing his crimson eyes, and sighing, running one finger over one of his horns and then lowering his arms again, his dark-garbed legs sitting crossed in his seat. Cain noticed that oddity about the Vampire. He had never seen a Vampire with horns in his twenty-eight years of life so far, so he didn't understand the strange look of this Vampire, nor his fashion, but he dared not question.

He kept his eyes on the bodyguards as he crossed the room, nearing the table, and keeping his package close in case they would try to steal it. It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to pull a fast one on him, but the Vampire there snapped his fingers, and one of the bodyguards crouched down, lifting off the ground a large case of his own, and bringing it to the table, setting it down, and opening it, the case filled to the brim with many round spheres, priceless gems and crystals of Topaz, Jasmine, and others sitting side by side.

It was the real deal. The Bodyguard closed the box, and stood back, the Vampire looking up expectantly at Cain, who sighed with a smile, and set down the case of his own... this action causing a smile to come across the Vampire's lips, and opening it as well, looking up to see this Vampire's fanged grin. Closer now, he could see that the garbing on the Vampire's crossed legs was trimmed with red... and they weren't pants, they were plates of armor, the man obviously decked out in full armor under that long coat of his.

In the case were three long pieces of metal, one of them having a round ring through it's crimson body, two prongs in the center staff sticking into either side of the ring's inside making a sort of cross from the metal. Slowly, the Vampire placed each piece of metal together, a metallic ringing seeming to fill the air as the pieces literally fused together, glowing dull as the staff's original form took place again, soon revealing that it wasn't a staff at all.

Completely reformed, the thick cross in the Vampire's hand was raised and examined for any flaws that would give away any falsity... but Cain was calm, speaking to assure the Vampire.

"Indeed, this is one of the many blades used to bind the beast of destruction's body to the moon... the blades fell to earth when it freed itself long ago, and so, they were in pieces when they did fall. I'm surprised you knew of them, however, but you are willing to pay, and so I am willing to deliver to you one of the four seals of Vanargand." Cain said this in a soothing voice, the horned vampire with violet stripes running down his eyes looking at Cain, and giving a low laugh, nodding and setting down the long cross blade.

"I will not ask how you came across it, but I am glad you have brought it to me, I will be needing it in a future task of mine..." This vampire snapped his fingers, and the other bodyguards brought forth more suitcases, the rest of the man's payment, and showing their contents just to ensure the man he was not being ripped off. Then they picked up the one already on the table, ready to guide the man out of the room and take the boxes to his car.

"Ah, before I go..." Halfway across the room, the man turned to face the Vampire in the room, the horned vampire looking at him with an amused look, Cain stopping and turning around to face the Vampire, he smiled and spoke.

"Is it alright if I ask your name?"

The Vampire was silent for a moment... then spoke.

"The Duke, Dumas."

"Hey, thanks buddy." Cain said this to the dark garbed bodyguard as they placed the many suitcases into the trunk of the man's personal car, the said bodyguard being emotionless and not replying to the man's gratitude, but nonetheless, Cain produced a number of bills, a different form of Soll currency used in Appullus, and shoved them in the front pocket of the man's coat, patting the roll of bills in the guard's coat and laughing.

"Just payment for your work." He said, then closing the trunk, and getting into the back seat of his car, watching the guards return to the inside of the hotel... and letting his smile drop immediately, a serious look coming onto the man's face, consuming it entirely.

"Drive."

The car then sped away from the hotel, the man leaning back and looking over his shoulder at the hotel as it drew further and further away, not looking forward when his driver asked him,

"If I may ask, what's with the rush sir?"

The man smirked at this, and sighed.

"The man in the hotel room was one of the barbarians from Culiacan on the other side of the world... inside of the roll of dollar bills I gave to that bodyguard was a proximity trigger set with a timer... it should be going right about-"

He could hear it even from his distance, flames sailing out of the hotel room window as the explosives rigged in the suitcase detonated, consuming the room in flames and whirling out into the sky, Cain looking away from the window and biting his lip, simply looking ahead as the car continued down the road, the man crossing his arms and legs and thinking aloud.

"I won't let you barbarian bastards take my city.. if you've got war, leave it on your turf... don't bring it to ours."

The car soon vanished into a tunnel into the complex underground driveways, police vehicles beginning up past them toward the hotel that now spewed flames from it's one hundred and twenty-eighth room...

And in those flames, a certain armored man stood, the blond vampire growling as he twirled the staff he was given in hand. While his bodyguards now lay in ashes at his feet, the Duke stood unharmed. Obviously he had been underestimated... and obviously, his presence wasn't very enjoyed on this side of the world. It would do him well to keep his name to himself for now...

But while he was still here, he now had a little more business to attend to. This insult was one that wouldn't be let go. He'd definitely pay this Cain fellow a visit in the future... to get rid of him like the other tried to do to him.

His crimson eyes peered over the beautiful city... and the Duke scowled, frowning.

"It'd be better if this place was stained in blood."


	3. Demonoid Phenomenon

As always, inspired by Rob Zombie's 'Demonoid Phenomenon

"So this is the city of Acuna..."

Cain said this to himself as he stepped out of the limousine he had rented upon his arrival, flying in on a private plane a little over a week after first meeting the Duke of Vampires from this place in person, where he had sold him one of the four seals, two more of which he owned, the fourth being lost to time. The brown-haired man was not wearing a suit on this particular event, to his enjoyment, dressed in a pair of loose blue pants, with a light sleeveless vest under his green, long and loose sleeved coat, which had strange, ring-like half-cuffs of armor over the shoulders, and from the collar portion of the coat's robe-like body, a brown sash hang over his chest, with an odd language writ upon it.

The man dug into his pocket and paid the man who had driven him here, allowing the limousine to drive out of view before stepping across the street, noting the many odd looks he got from the fear-filled people of this city. 'Fear-filled', because that was the immediate impression he got from their eyes, many eyes looking upon him as if he were some sort of monster. The blue-eyed man mocked their fear by simply smiling and waving back, shoving his hands in his pockets and beginning down the street, his brown boots clicking against the paved concrete road he walked down, looking at the many neat buildings lined up on the sides of the street, many of which were still open, as while it was night, it was no later than seven-thirty, but even so, people were wary to leave buildings.

He wasn't sure why, but he did notice a good deal of mist floating through areas of the neat streets. This place was a lot cleaner than he anticipated from the barbaric tragedies he heard take place here. He had come here in the first place to get some research done on the Duke of Vampires he had seen, his information source telling him of a certain woman here who knew more than she did herself, a certain Info Broker who often wandered the town bars and taverns as she passed through. It obviously wouldn't be hard to find her, as when he began asking for the nearest bar in town, he was pointed in one direction.

In the distance, a single golden light shone from the top of a tall building, the light of the object in the namesake of the bar he was told of. The Golden Pumpkin. The man gave his thanks (And a tip) to the man who told him, who was revealed to him to be a local 'Guildsman' of the area, and then began toward the Golden Pumpkin. Cain hummed to himself vibrantly as he began on his way, but the further he went, he began to notice less and less people wandering the streets, and thicker fog begin to occupy some areas, accompanied by strange noises and scuffling as he went on...

A strange feeling caused the hairs on the back of Cain's neck to stand, and he stopped humming, his blue eyes fully opening and one of his hands leaving his pocket, going to the back of his belt of his dark pants, beneath the loose green shirt he was wearing... He gripped what was there tightly, and kept on walking, keeping his senses honed to whatever was stalking him in the night, because whatever it was, it was the reason behind the people in this place vanishing so suddenly. He as sure, because he knew there were at least three people heading the same direction as him ahead of him that just completely vanished into the fog at some point...

He could hear the hiss of the creature's breath, the writhing of it's body as it glided behind him, and with extreme precision, the man leaped up, twirling up in mid-air, Cain roaring as he leaped over the approaching hands of the violet-garbed figure gliding through the fog, and driving his left leg into the being's jaw, a great hiss rising from the being as it reeled back. Cain fell back to the ground after his kick, and hopped back, yanking the strange object from his belt as he landed and bringing both his arms forward, noting how the mist began to fade as the gray-haired creature reeled back, and then drew itself upright.

"Not bad." It spoke in a raspy voice. "You're one of the first in a few days to ever react to my presence... good reflexes."

Why the hell was this thing complimenting him? Obviously this place was more odd than he originally realized. Cain had rethought his ideas of this place when he actually saw it, assuming only the select few were barbaric, not everyone, but seeing this man made him think again. He growled, and watched the man stretch out his long arms and fingers to his side, dark power practically rolling off his every breath... and lunged forward again, this man of gray hair, the pale skin of a vampire, and deep crimson eyes hissing as he sped toward his human foe, who was entirely defenseless.

Or wasn't at all. The moment the anticipated attack came, Cain swung his arm out at the approaching Phantom, and because he was in range, the metal prong that shot out would cut through the creature's cheek, the gray-haired man crying out in pain and spinning aside, his shoulder colliding with the wall, and clutching his cheek, black blood coming out of it. Looking over... he saw what had just hit him. Unfolding from a large sphere of layered metal that Cain had drawn from his belt, a thick staff, with a strange cross-shaped tip in the familiarity of the dark emblem was in his hand, the staff black and crimson with dark matter.

This black light covered each of the three ends of the prongs rising from the ring-head of the staff, and immediately, just looking, the Phantom could see that this man, was no ordinary man.

"You little shit!"

No more time to be scary. No more games. The Phantom lunged forward furious, thrusting his claws out rapidly at Cain in his rage to attempt to attack him, Cain using the body of his staff to block each claw strike, or leaping aside to dodge these attacks, leaping around some, and even returning with strikes of his own, sparks flying from the tip of his staff as it dragged across the street or over walls in it's swings toward the Phantom, who would bound aside with obviously inhuman reflexes with the greatest of ease.

But the man he faced also held reflexes beyond any normal human he'd ever seen, and he needed to know why.

"Why, why? Why are you still alive against me? What the hell are you?"

He had never seen any human ever able to wield a dark weapon, aside from that Dhamphir vampire hunter working with the guild, and still, he'd never seen any human with such capabilities and reflexes to the point where he was almost able to match his own. What the hell was he!?

He would soon find out when he lunged again with his right arm, his long claws screeching across the base of the staff, and past it, Cain's defense being raised a little too late, and a loud crunch ringing out as the Phantom's claws sank into his arm, and ripped out, peeling away cloth and skin.. but no blood came out, only sparks, the Phantom's eyes widening. In his surprise he was wide open, but even then, he hardly noticed it, a vicious swing leading to the staff slamming into the side of his head and throwing him out into the street.

The Phantom sat up immediately after falling, staring at the tear in the man's arms with wide eyes as if in fear, and thin twisting into inconceivable rage, his crimson eyes glowing as he looked at the mechanical workings underneath the the hole in his skin, and he could only growl in fury.

"Cybernetics, machinery... You're more machine than you are man!"

Cain took this as a compliment, grinning as he lunged at the fallen Phantom, raising his staff and driving it down, the man rolling aside and the staff-tip driving into the ground, shearing through concrete effortlessly with the dark power circulating through the weapon, creating a long, jagged line as it was swung out as well, nicking the tip of the purple clothed man's jaw, and he replied by launching numerous waves of dark energy at the man.

He took the opportunity to reveal his strength due to his mechanical implants now by taking a massive leap into the air over the dark waves, twirling through the air like an acrobat, onto the roof of the building that had been behind him, and raising his staff to his shoulder, the undead being in the street below looking up at him and hissing. The very reason he got mechanical implants in the first place was for this.

In the inevitability he would get in a scuffle with a vampire, he had to prepare. He hired numerous scientists to get this work done, but it worked perfectly. The mechanical implants were placed in him to give him the advantage over other humans, and possibly, other vampires as well. It worked, oh yes, it worked, and with the incredible freedom it gave him, it could be called a success. Also, because the mechanics in him were not living, he could also wield the staff as he did now, even if it was a dark weapon, without living entity in his arms, without a natural draw to the energies of the world, he could wield the darkness-related weapon without issue.

The machines gave him an incredible advantage in battle, almost as if he was a vampire, giving him incredible reflexes, all without the stress of having the muscles in his arms and legs tiring as he went. The mechanical implants were perfectly handy for times like this, and capable of wielding dark weapons with his dead limbs, he grinned while raising his staff overhead, using his free hand to taunt the phantom below.

"Come and get it."

The Phantom Stranger's face twisted in anger at the taunt of the cyborg-man before him, a loud hiss rising from his throat as he took a supernaturally powered leap up to meet Cain, who lashed out with his staff, though the Phantom's super-powered reflexes allowed him to narrowly dodge. He whipped past Cain, landing in a crouch on the roof, and lunging back, his claws meeting Cain's staff in a stalemate, and then again, one hand snapping back and lunging forward, colliding with a shrill screech against the metal of his staff as it's position was adjusted to block the strike, Cain grinning, and preparing a counterattack of his own.

The moment the phantom attacked again, Cain took this chance to dodge, claws grazing his side as he dashed forward and brought his staff around, slamming it's end into the Phantom's chest and throwing him back, a second swing missing, but almost ripping the Phantom's now bloodied torso open, black blood spilling from where he'd been stabbed. Seeing that he infuriated the Phantom more, Cain was willing to bait him now, leaping back, kicking off the roof of the building into the open air, with the Phantom right behind him, both sailing into the night sky with weapons drawn...

A golden explosion rang against the staff's tip as it rose up, the light placing space between the Phantom and Cain as they fell back, both turning to see a brown-haired boy standing there with two Solar guns in hand, one resembling a hand gun, but a large rifle resting in the other, with numerous other goggle wearing men and women behind him, and standing ahead of them all, one violet haired, eyepatch wearing man...

'He wields a dark sword.' Cain mused at the casket-armor wearing man in the dark blue coat standing at the side of the road, this very sword he noticed being raised, the Dark Swordsman ready to lunge at the Phantom.. but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Phantom ready to flee, so before he could, he made one last move in this battle.

"HEY!"

The Phantom turned his head just in time for the black dagger to sink into his chest, a vicious cry rising from his throat as his body glowed red, a few sickening seconds in the Phantom's undead life being taken to remove the energy sucking knife from his chest, and dropping it to the ground, the Phantom would whip away in a whirl of dust... only to find himself not the distance he could normally cross.

The dagger had eaten a great amount of power, noting he could still he the Guildsmen.. who could still see him, and cursed as they began firing at him, the being turning on tail and fleeing, the Guildsmen on his trail immediately, with the violet-haired hunter on his trail, his body glowing violet as he chased him down with Dark power augmenting his movements...

"Hm."

Cain picked his knife up off the ground after a moment, watching how it glowed and wrapping it in the cloth he originally carried the black and red knife in before sticking it in his belt, looking over at the remaining Guildsmen who casually approached him, the brown-haired boy wielding the two guns putting one back on his own belt, and lifting his goggles, looking at the man.

"That was an interesting thing you did there. It might just help us finally kill this bastard. Who are you?"

Cain could only think of one thing.

"A vampire hunter, what else? I just happened to be rolling into town from the far east, and I saw that phantom there."

The boy seemed satisfied by this answer, and he nodded.

"Just like Lucian."

So that's who the purple-haired man was. He remembered his information sources telling him about a certain purple haired man seeking revenge on the Duke and the Vampires... that must have been him. Shoving one arm into his pocket to cover the wound in his hand, the man allowed his spear to retract into it's circular form, it's cross-shaped head still present, just condensed, and placed it back on his belt, answering the questions asked to him casually, eventually until they let him go, but before he left, he asked something to the boy.

"Uh, Hey..."

"Yeah?"

"Would you happen to know where the 'Info Broker' would be?"

He smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as he said this, and Aaron raised an eyebrow.

He looked to his Guildsmen allies, who shrugged, and Aaron then looked back to Cain, smiling.

"I'll show you her!"

Cain smiled back, sighing relievedly.

"Thanks, you've no idea how much this helps."


	4. What lurks on Channel X?

Inspired by Rob Zombie's 'What lurks on Channel X?'

"Ladies and Gentlemen... I would like to make the following statement, about our young generation, the Young Generation... that Sick Generation."

With these words, every television then began to flicker with static, not the black and white static of a loss of static, but black and red static, like the dark matter that flowed through the veins of a vampire...

In these previous ten minutes, the mayor of the city of Acuna had cut off any program currently being shown on television to make an important statement to the people, first talking to assure the people of the city of nothing to fear from the events recently in the city... and the Phantom that had appeared in it, saying the Guild was doing it's best to remedy this problem, and how this same guild was responsible for the downfall of the Duke's tyranny...

Then this happened.

Black and Red flickered curiously across the screen as time passed, in the next minute, beginning slowly, but then beginning to pulse quicker, faster, red light growing from each screen on each television as the pulses grew brighter and brighter, the pulses growing audible and louder, the static pulsing quicker and faster across the screens, entrancing each watching person in confusion as they waited for what would happen, confused by the sudden static on every channel on every television in the city...

Only to be sent reeling back shuddering and shivering with fear at the horrible scream that rose from every television screen across the city, blood staining the camera on every screen, this static slowly fading to show the very conference hall in Acuna that the mayor had been presenting in... only to show the blood stain of the woman who now lay on the ground, the camera set upon her half missing face, brain spilling past what was missing of her skull, blood soaking into the already red rug...

Then the Camera moved again, an unseen hand lifting it back onto it's stand, and a rag coming onto the camera and cleaning it off, a pale-skinned face coming onto the screen for a few seconds, and then stepping back, the pale-blue of vampiric flesh seen on the man's face immediately as he stood back, giving a wide-fanged grin to the camera before stepping out of sight, the camera then, now clean, zooming in on the table where the mayor had been sitting.

He still sat there now, except he sat tied, tied by black chains to the chair he was in, and gone was the altar he had stood before, in it's place, a long, metallic table with many thick legs, almost like a surgical table with the numerous scars as it was seen as the camera zoomed.. and it was proved to be as a body was tossed onto the table, a woman screaming as her chained body fell onto the table, the Vampire who had been seen on screen coming into view again.

His dark orange hair hung in thick bangs around his deep crimson eyes, and his white lab coat whipped around him as he forced the woman against the table, the chains on her stretching out and instead wrapping around the table, binding her to it, the labcoat wearing vampire with clothes of blue and gray under it laughing to himself about the woman's struggles... and producing from the side of the table, a long surgical saw that he held in both hands as he sat down, facing the camera. All the while, he still wore his broad, vampiric smile.

"Hello there dear viewers, we are sorry to interrupt your broadcast, but I was feeling a little peckish.. so for the next hour or so, I, your host, the Scientist practiced in the art of death, Jonas, shall be dissecting each man and woman and showing you what they're REALLY made of just for your and my viewing pleasure! It sounds like fun, doesn't it? Keep tuned into Channel X for further coverage, and keep your eyes peeled, because it's not like you can't anyways! And little Guildsmen, I know you're watching... Come and play with me! Let's see if you can get to me before the Mayor is dead at the end of the hour, hm? Now, let the festivities begin!"

Aaron couldn't believe his eyes.

He couldn't look anymore either after the first cut through the stomach was made either, the woman strapped to the table now stripped of her clothing crying out in bloody murder as she was ripped open, and Aaron felt like he was going to puke, rushing out of the room in the Guild headquarters, right into Lucian, the boy looking up to see disgusted look on the Dark Swordsman's face.

"Yeah... I saw it too." He confirmed the boy's fears by speaking, the two turning to see familiar Guild Gunslingers, a Blond woman in red, a gray-haired and tan-skinned man with silver hair, and a dog-headed canid in yellow, rushing up to meet them. Bea, the gunslinger in red, was ready to puke as well by the looks of her, both Kay and Ernest looked fairly disgusted as well, carrying their solar guns with them, and cursing,.

"We've gotta go there." Ernest said, and Lucian nodded, looking at Aaron, who nodded as well, and ran off, running to pick up his solar guns, with Lucian turning back into the room he just left and picking up the familiar Dark Sword, the Vanargand, that he wielded, looking to the three Guildsmen, who looked like they were recovering from what they had seen, and then looking to Aaron, who brought the Knight and the Ninja set of solar guns with him, nodding to the rest of the group, with a fairly still disgusted look on his face, and all five then began, rushing out of the Guild headquarters, Lucian calling Alice on his mobile unit. Moments later, they were warping into Acuna, to an unwelcome sight..

"Oh shit."

People ran about madly as the broadcasts of slaughter went on in every screen of the city, but even more, they ran about in madness and fear as they attempted to escape the monstrosities sluggishly making their way down the streets, chewing on the bodies of those unfortunate enough to run right into them, and crushing others who ran past, the moving masses of flesh and bone howling in terrible agony, making Aaron wince.

"Oh And I forgot to mention, a few experiments of mine will be wandering around until I leave, just to make things a little interesting! Have fun, little Guildsmen!" He said this almost as if he could see them, just finishing sawing off the top of the woman's skull and letting the brain fall out into his open hand once the top of her skull was removed, the man looking at it hungrily, and opening his mouth, fangs gleaming at what he held...

"What the fucking hell!?"

The Solar shots seemed to be absorbed into the molten mass of the monsters as they went, while Lucian rushed forward, lashing out at the many limbs rising out of the fleshy masses in the middle of the street, cutting them loose, only to have another one launch at him from some other part of the molding body, the purple-haired man being forced to leap back as a result of this. No matter how they attacked these things, they continued sluggishly forward, howling in immeasurable agony and hunger...

"Lucian! Just go past it!" He looked back to see Bea, Ernest, and Kay standing there with guns raised, poised as if ready to stay there and fight.

"You can get past, they're too slow to follow, but take Aaron with you! You two have to go stop that Vampire!"

Lucian nodded quickly, the brown-haired boy following after him, and in glows of violet, the two whipped around each monster, enhanced by the powers flowing through them as they ran. It was strange though, and both noticed. These monsters were out in the middle of the day, even if it was overcast, clouds and mist blocking the sun, were they not afraid of dying?

No... they weren't suicidal.

"LUCIAN!"

The man slid to a stop just in time to avoid being impaled as Aaron cried out, the pale white-skinned being's arms driving into the ground and cracking it in front of the Vampire hunter, who leaped back, watching the bald, hairless and naked figure writhe inhumanly and draw it's arms, which were entirely blades, out of the ground, giving a wild cry, it's jaw widening as if it were unlatched.

A second one of these would join soon, leaping down from a nearby building soaked in blood, drenched from head to toe in the blood of the helpless people it had killed. This infuriated Lucian. Raising his dark sword, he roared as he ran forward, swinging the blade swiftly at the warped being, which twisted and dodged acrobatically with it's lithe moments, replying with lashes of it's arms that were blocked with the side of the Vanargand, sparks flying and screeches ringing out from the sword's colliding..

The monster screeched horribly as Aaron blew a hole through it's chest with his Knight however, a fully charged shot sending the monster flying back and throwing it to the ground, black blood, like oil, spilling from it's wound and the pieces of flesh shot out of it. Yet, for many moments, it continued to screech and writhe, almost pulling itself back up to it's feet if Lucian had not driven the Vanargand through it's head, the beast finally dying and reducing to a bloody stain in the ground... that only left the second one.

It was obviously at a loss. With the death of the other.. it can to a complete stand still... then howled enormously. The death of it's ally drove it mad, the creature lunging at twice the speed of the last, Lucian receiving numerous small cuts even as he blocked the larger strikes from the monster, which even managed to dodge a second charged solar shot from Aaron, who would expect it to be distracted... only to realize he was wrong as it bounded at him.

He threw up his arms in his defense, but the blood that would splash onto him would not be his own. Opening his eyes, he saw the Vanargand piercing the creature's chest, Lucian hurling it like a harpoon only seconds ago, and now lunging forward, he seized it, slicing the creature up and down, cutting it straight in two. Looking at the boy, he sighed.

"You okay?"

Aaron nodded slowly, and with that, Lucian turned around again, taking off into a jog again with Aaron right after him, beginning down the road that led to the town hall, where the mayor would be waiting.

Unfortunately, so was interference.

"Hm... I wonder Mister Mayor, will your beloved Guildsmen make it here in time to save you?" Jonas said this to the final man he had chained to the table, of six different people, the Mayor saved for last, six dismembered corpses laying on the ground about, with other corpses randomly strewn about the room, off the camera's view..

"I don't kno-"

As Jonas made his next teasing comment, the hall doors flew open, and he grinned broadly as a scratched and battered Lucian and Aaron rushed inside, however, the wounds were minor, so both were eager to call the vampire out.

"ALRIGHT MOTHERFUCKER, COME GET SOME!"

Lucian snarled this as Jonas turned around, wearing his widest grin as his crimson eyes began to glow, and swinging up his arms, all his bloody tools on his table swung into the air, lunging forward at the swing of the Vampire's arms. Lucian was prepared though, drawing the emblem from his hip, he swung out the Silver Cross Shield to defend himself and Aaron from the oncoming barrage, the emblem expanding into the shield, which rang with many large 'thunks' as the tools stuck into it and sailed past the two, Aaron clinging tightly to Lucian.

"Hm?"

Jonas smirked as the many weapons were stopped by Lucian's shield, the Solar Boy raising his twin Ninja guns to fire at the Vampire, countless solar shots sinking into his body as the boy fired. At the same time, they had no idea how open they were. Swinging his arms upwards now, the weapons detached themselves from Lucian's shield, and flew back if they flew past the two, spinning around their master to deflect the solar shots.. then around the two.

A countless number of blood stained silver blades spun around the two with a seemingly eager intention to cut into them as they danced along, Lucian cursing with his shield still raised... they'd be open from other sides if the shield was used... he knew only had one choice when the blades turned inwards toward them.

"Come on!"

Lucian yelled this as he snatched Aaron into his arms and crouched down, the shield at Aaron's back, and the boy's face turning red the way he was being held in Lucian's arms... only to twist in shock and fear as he heard Lucian cry out as the blades sank into his body, blood pouring into the boy's clothes as it spilled in small amounts past Lucian's plates of armor, the purple haired man grunting and stepping away from Aaron with numerous small blades sticking out of his body.. only to collapse back onto the floor, cursing, the Vanargand falling from his hand as functions of his body began to fade...

"L-Lucian..?" Aaron looked at the man, his eyes widening with fear as the man's eyes began haze. If it was one wound, the man would of been fine.. he was filled with more holes than swiss cheese. If this wasn't over with in a moment.. he would surely die.

"BASTARD!"

Aaron, even knowing the implications, took the Dark Sword in hand as he began rushing at Jonas who stood with raised eyebrows as the solar boy lifted Vanargand, crimson lightning from the sword's dark matter shooting up his arms as he ran down the aisle between the seats in the conference room, howling as he began to raise his sword.

Jonas narrowed his eyes, and began to hurl his remaining blades at Aaron, who began swinging the heavy sword in hand back and forth, batting away blades, and ignoring ones that cut at him, the orange-haired man's crimson eyes beginning to widen as he drew nearer, beginning to take a attempt to get away, back toward the table, but a little too late, the black blade of the Vanargand sinking into his stomach, and the Vampire crying out in a silent scream, blood rushing up past his lips, with the sword soon falling from his stomach as Aaron could hold it no more, looking up at the Vampire with scarred hands...but still willing to draw his Knight from his hip to aim at the being...

Who was no longer there. Dark matter floated up toward the ceiling for a few moments, a sure sign of a teleport, as the boy lowered his gun, the silver blades all about beginning to shatter, and the dark chains binding the man on the table down loosening, he cursed, slumping to the ground with numerous wounds all over his body... and he collapsed to the floor.

"...I guess you won't be going alone, Lucian.."

"..Buh?"

Aaron's eyes would open painfully as he woke up later that night, unable to move due to the countless bandages all over his body, but turning his head, he was able to see that he was in a hospital bed, and in one right next to a familiar purple haired man...

"...That was a stupid move kid." Lucian grumbled at him from where he lay bandaged up, biting his lip.

"..But you did a good job."

This brought a smile to the boy's lips, who chuckled to himself, and laid back in the bed, sighing.

'May as well go back to sleep... not much else to do, he thought.' And with a final deep breath, he let his mind go, returning to the land of dreams where he had been before waking up moments ago.


	5. Spookshow Baby

Inspired by Rob Zombie's 'Spookshow Baby'

It had been little more than a week after the Acuna town hall Incident when the next one struck, seemingly without warning, and in the most inconspicuous form one would expect either.

People wandered the streets with an overflowing paranoia. Alien, Human, or neither, all would constantly look over their shoulders, fearing the very people they had lived among for years as if the next terror would come barreling at them from around the corner. They feared the ones they loved, the ones they cared for, and it seemed that everyone's life was put on premature hold. People continued to vanish at nights, never to be heard from again, alive at least. Some would even vanish during the day, to be found mutilated in the most horrible ways in some abandoned building or empty alleyway which people would report giving off a horrible stench, the rotten stench of death.

The Guild was having little to no luck. They could find no means to track each of the Vampires who had appeared before them, and though the man responsible for weakening a certain 'Phantom' that stalked the night offered his help, they'd rather him not involved. He seemed less a Vampire hunter than a traveler who got lucky to them, though they were farthest from truth, but he wasn't exactly ready to disclose that at the time either. He watched from a distance, seeing them spread as far out as they could to the city's far reaches, hoping to limit the Phantom's range, and possibly track him down if able. This expansion however, limited the lines of the Guildsmen, and more than one would turn up dead after a mostly uneventful night, without any sort of warning or sign.

As if only to crush the people's hopes further, mutilated corpses would begin appearing just before dawn as well. The Guildsmen and a certain Dark Swordsman had their idea who it was from the moment the first half-decapitated corpse appeared, with it's body impaled upon the top of a lamp-post, it's arms and legs removed and it's heart visibly torn out through a long, jagged tear in it's chest. The very man who was responsible for nearly killing the now heavily protected mayor was still wandering the city streets, and knowledge of that got out quite easily. People began leaving the city in hordes.

Fear ran think in the blood of those who decided to stay, or had to stay because they couldn't afford to go anywhere else. They stayed hidden in their homes, hoping they wouldn't be found, putting funds into buying worthless ornaments said to ward vampires. Those selling these profound instruments of worthless fortune were making a hell of a killing nowadays.

Others would go out and get drunk, night after night, washing away their fears in ale and mead and drowning themselves in alcohol to dull the pain should they be the next one to die. it was interesting enough that these men were generally the ones who survived as well among the victims who would turn up over the night, because at least one did every night. One night during the week, had been particularly bloody, with both haunts cursing this town quite busy. On conjoining streets, one was lined with corpses with their throats ripped out, though each face was twisted in either agony or ecstasy.

On the next street, heavily mutilated corpses hung from hooks and streetposts and signs with eyes torn out, some jaws removed, some without arms over legs, some with exposed innards, some without flesh to mask the empty hulls of their torsos, and some with more gruesome work done unto the lower body...

It was these that they mostly didn't have to worry about. Most of the mutilated victims came without the fear that these poor souls would not return as an undead to haunt the living residents of the city. It was those the phantom struck that had to be dealt with. Corpses were collected and burned, in order to prevent their bodies from reviving and spreading the undead plague to the rest of the living in the city, and those who awoke before they could be collected were dealt with by Dark Sword or Solar gun alike, returning them to the earth as ash.

It was when some of the mutilated corpses began to animate that even the Guildsmen began to fear one thing they could of not forseen between the two Vampires haunting their city.

Alliance.

The corpses did not get far with missing limbs, turned to the dust from whence they came, and the rest of the corpses identically burned with the rest to assure themselves that were would be no more of this.

Guildsmen were fearful of the idea of an alliance between these two horrifying forces of the night. Originally, it had appeared that each functioned on an agenda of his own, but on the night that the streets lined with corpses appeared, the Guild immediately changed their thoughts. With an alliance of Vampires, it could of been the beginning of another, New Dark Tribe, that could haunt the lands freed of vampires now, and put a stranglehold on humans once again, as they had since time immemorial.

It was then that the Dark Swordsman began to put his own agenda before that of the Guild. He was quick to return each of the Terrennials of the Elements to his aide to help him dispose of the dead and dying, while tracking down the two Vampires with the help of a certain Sunflower girl who watched from space above. Her satellite came useful, as him and the now somewhat more grown Solar boy, working in their group of two with the Terrennials in tow, could actually track any sightings of the Vampires much easier than a group of Guildsmen could. Numerous times they came into contact with the strange Phantom, but found no signs of the other Vampire, but never counted him out of the equation.

Not with the death toll still on the rise.

Even with these ideas, the usual drunkards still came to the bar, drinking themselves into a stupor and drunkenly making their way homes to their bed, where they were undisturbed until they repeated the process. It was because of this that the Guildsmen began taking some notably alcoholic drinks on them to the patrols, despite some being strictly non-alcoholic, they'd take swigs of vodka or whiskey to see if it worked, and because of the alcohol, many men were very narrowly saved from when the Phantom came after them.

Some didn't believe it, some couldn't believe it. but it was true. Obviously these Vampires had some very picky tastes...

So this attracted even more men and women to the bars, happily getting drunk and getting away with their lives, less and less showing up dead since this trend started... however, on this particular night, the Golden Pumpkin would be carrying some new guests that would distract the men from their drinking with eager eyes and fingers.

It wasn't often that visitors like this came through these parts, but in those time, some many strange stories and sights would be seen, just like on this particular night, where no married man would go home without the scorn of his wife. On a makeshift stage set up by the guests who had arrived, a woman danced, enchanting every man who watched with her light brown skin and long, wavy dusk-colored hair, teasing in her dances with glimpses of flesh among the veils she bore upon her scarcely covered body.

Though others, dressed in dark robes and sat around the stage, beat their drums, and played strange instruments, catching the eye of few, the woman on the stage, who matched every note to the beat in her dance and step and sway, was the star of the show. Her enchanting green eyes seemed to glow when they were open, pushing the hearts of watching men up into their throats. Her hands, wrists covered by decorative rings and bangles that chimed, wove and spun around her with her step and spin, exotically dancing her hands about her with the rest of her body, the body that every man there felt a desire to have.

Her tanned body spun in time with the beat, feet tapping against the floor, round hips swaying to the enjoyment of men, her chest heaving and swinging with every twist and turn of her body, her 'twins' catching the eyes of more than one man beneath the frilly and almost transparent veil of green that hung over them from the collar on her neck, a similar 'belt' of leather, like the collar, carrying with it a long veil and sash that hung thinly between her legs, giving a glimpse of her inner leg to more than one man in her dance.

Had the two protectors of the planet not shown when they did, the carnage to come may have been far more. Lucian would not give eyes to the elfen-eared woman and her dance as he entered, the violet-haired man fixing his eyepatch with one hand, and brushing strands of hair out of his face with another, sitting down at the bar, with the brown-haired boy bearing emerald goggles and a red scarf in tow, however, he had indeed noticed the woman.

"Wow." He said, dumfounded as he watched the woman, the dark coated Swordsman raising an eyebrow in the boy's direction as he sat back, turning his head to finally look at the woman. It was fortunate for him, that he was in fact, not entirely human. The Exotic touch of the woman's form was not completely lost on him, however, it had an adverse affect on him than it had on others. Looking into the girl's green eyes when they met with his, he could only feel a cold chill running down his spine.

The boy in vest and shorts beside him however, was not so chilled, entirely human even with his solar blood. When her powerful green eyes met with the boy's own, and a smile graced her lips, a blush would fill the boy's gentle cheeks and he would look away for a moment, only to find himself looking at her again, lost in her swinging form and gentle step, body and hair following her swing of her hips and body, almost every man now enchanted in her being.

To the Dark Swordsman, however, her hair's whip was like the rise and fall of a scythe. The way she moved, the way she enticed every man here, it was no natural work that was making it's magic here. This would become more than obvious in the next few seconds. The purple-haired man's attention would snap to the creak of a chair as a man stepped from it, making his way through the frozen crowd, leaving his untouched drunk at the table, and approaching the stage, where the woman's dance seemed to slow, as did the beat of the music. She beckoned to him, her arms outstretched with her dance-step as he climbed up the stairs unto the stage, the girl's hands rising along the man's chin, scratching it gently with her nails, and guiding him back to her...

He seemed more than happy to be drawn into her arms as he was, with probably more than lewd intentions of what he planned to do, but his intentions were not what mattered. Hers were. Closer and closer he drew... and again, a cold chill shot down Lucian's spine. He hopped off the barstool, picking up the Vanargand, the favored Dark Sword of choice, he had lain against the side of the bar, and began his way through the crowd as well, hoping his suspicions were correct. The closer he drew to the stage, the closer the man drew to the calling woman, the beat of drums reaching their peak and their highest...

He only saw the glint of fangs for a second, possibly less, but the drums came to a halt with a thundering boom as the woman lunged, her magic numbing the man's mind too much to realize what was going on, before his fangs sank right into his exposed neck, his collar drawn back by her outstretched hand. Jealous mumbles went about the crowd. They too were numbed. They could not see what was going on, but the Dark Swordsman could.

Oh yes, he saw.

As the blood rolled past the woman's lips, the man's knees began to weaken and buckle... he placed one hand on the woman's cheek, drawing it back, to note a white, pasty powder on his fingers... and looking over at the woman's cheek, he saw a patch of blue in the shape of his hand. It was then he realized just what was happening.

"V-v-v-" His neck was broken before he could finish his sentence, his body going limb and beginning to fall to the ground, fangs leaving two large holes in his neck... but this sight would not stop the Dark Swordsman. The purple-haired Lucian had seen enough, and with a growl, he lunged unto the stage, over the musicians, whose drumbeat began again as the woman bounded out of his way, hissing in a wide-fanged grin at the man as he began at her.

Her nimbleness, her agility and flexibility, it was all unmistakable. The patch of removed make-up on her cheek revealing her blue skin beneath was also proof enough of his thoughts. She was a Vampire, and it was only his own cursed blood that had saved him from whatever magic she had worked on this place. This place would have been a scene of slaughter had he not been here. His sword thrust and jabbed, as he could with his little space on the stage as he lunged at the woman, who with inhuman reflex whipped aside each thrust and lunge, even once leaping into a mid-air split over the lunge of his jagged Vanargandr.

It wasn't only Lucian attacking however. Fair trade was given as the woman wove between strikes, using the moment Lucian needed to draw his weapon back to draw in close to him, throwing bare-knuckled punches at the man's face or torso, ringing out like steel against the Vanargand's surface as he blocked. Any normal human likely would of broken their knuckles, but Lucian reminded himself of what his foe really was, using the flat-surface of his sword to block a second fist, which rang again upon the surface of his Vanargand, sending a quiver up his arm, but the third strike was unanticipated.

In the instant his arm was weakened by her blow, she used her other arm to force the man's sword arm down, his blade sticking into the surface of the stage, and thrust her momentum into her left leg, her veil upon her waist flying up (to the enchanted men's delight of what was beneath) as her foot drove it's way into the man's cheek. She knocked the man into the wall directly behind the make-shift stage, and a second strike throwing the man right into the crowd, who scattered mindlessly to allow the man to strike the ground on his back. He groaned upon his landing, but was quick to push himself up.

Obviously, it wasn't quick enough. Leaping from the stage, his vampiric foe would land right atop him in a crouch, her feet planted on the ground beside his waist, her hands pushing down and her arms finding their way into the space between his arms and torso. She was still for a moment, before swinging her dusk-haired head back and hissing with her glowing emerald eyes, her fangs gleaming before him. Though he took advantage of this moment.

The moment she opened herself up, he lunged his head forward, slamming his forehead against the girl's nose with a sickening crack, and listening to her screech as she reeled back. He pulled his legs in, and kicked the woman right into her music-bound cohorts as she fell back, the music halting suddenly as she crashed among them. The robes would fall to the ground empty, and the musical objects would turn to dust. As it turned out to him, these were undead cohorts, and the objects were conjured out of darkness.

'Of course.' He thought to himself while kicking up to his feet, lunging at the woman before she could fully regain her composure. As she lunged aside, she didn't think of how the blade would still clip her, catching her side and the inside of her right arm with it's large blade, a hiss passing her lips as she threw her arm up and bound aside. He turned, assuming she would make an attempt to escape, like the other Vampires, but as she was right in his face, coming right at him, he hadn't expected the left hook that connected with his jaw, and sent him sailing through the air, the man's landing being caught upon a drink covered table, which split and broke beneath him among piles of broken glass beneath his back.

He was up on his feet quick however, his sword raised, watching how the Vampire woman eyed him in hopes of seeing how she attempted to attack, but she showed no signs, lunging right at him with a supposed attempt to strike again. He would swung right at her, his blade nicking her cheek as she began her own strategy while ducking to the floor with inhuman speed. With her momentum, her duck took her into a full on slide across the wooden floor, toward the man's legs, and drawing them both back, Lucian could tell what she was about to do the moment she was close enough, but was unable to do anything about it.

Her legs shot out like a magnum. With terrifying force, her feet shot into the man's crotch, the man's face twisting in unholy pain as his crotch shuddered under the force of the kick, which even sent splits and cracks through the armor around his legs. He found himself collapsing to the ground, curling up and clutching his crotch. Normally, a kick to the balls would of hurt, but it wouldn't have even broke his concentration, even if the woman who kicked him was wearing pointy-toed high heels, but this kick was oh so painful due to it's vampiric source. There was no escaping that.

"Fuuck..." He cursed under his breath as he fell, expecting the next strike being the one aiming to finish him, but the footsteps he heard grew farther and farther, until the door to the Golden Pumpkin sailed open...

And the trance on everyone broke.

"Oh my god! Lucian, what happened!?"

Aaron's voice did nothing but piss, him, off. The chatter of confused men and women around the bar, the women he realized, even being enchanted by that strange woman's dance, filling his ears among Aaron's surprised cries, with the boy helping Lucian up and guiding him to one of the Barstools, dragging the Vanargand over with him.

The man was quick to order a bag of ice, which he shoved in his armor with a weak sigh as he looked over at the boy, a scowl rising on his face immediately, and he growled.

"Funny how the first girl you actually see anything in is a Vampire. I should hurt you for getting tricked like that..."

Aaron whimpered, but Lucian shook his head, leaning back against the bar. He had to wonder what had just gone on.

'Why didn't she kill me?'

"He's still alive?"

"As you requested, but a little more than hurt below the waist level."

"Cruel."

"Yes... well, he'll be dealt with soon enough. If I hadn't had delivered that kick when I did, he probably would of killed me."

"Indeed... we're almost ready though. We just need one more.."


	6. Perversion

Inspired by Rob Zombie's 'Perversion'

"All these attacks, all these new Vampires... something's wrong about all of this."

"You say that, yet, you're just like them, Cross."

"And you, a werewolf, cannot deny a similar tie."

"..Aye.. Should the night retake the world, I cannot say I'd feel any remorse. And yet... it would be wrong to just let Vampires wander as they please..."

"So we shall intervene?"

"We shall, Utgard."

The night hung thick with the stench of death as the again full moon hung in the dark, clouded skies above. Looking back, the man would realize it was one month ago this day that everything had begun. That the vampires first began to appear, slowly, but surely ensuring their grasp over the city of Acuna. Alcohol spared some, some it did not. Undead sometimes wandered the fogged streets and blood soaked alleyways, catching an unfortunate pedestrian by the neck and proceeding to rip it out. This process would make more undead. More undead meant more spreading, like a malignant disease. The cure to that disease?

Guildsmen.

They fought valiantly. They scaled every building and street, bursts of gold burning undead flesh into ash. Yet one always slipped past them. They're Vampire prey always eluded them at every turn. They had yet to even see them again in many times. The Vampires tastes were growing. They began to feed even those who drank liquor to foul their blood and escape an undead touch to their bodies, so soon it became obvious that when the population of the city began to run thin... they would move onto Old Culiacan.

That couldn't happen.

The Guild, upon realizing this, was quick to set borders all around the city in a rather hopeless attempt to prevent the Vampires from escaping, but with the powers they already displayed to the humans of this city, those hopes were now rather bleak.

Despite their best efforts, people continued to vanish at night, and corpses continued to turn up at every turn, especially now of men and women of the guild, further crushing any hope they had. With Guildsmen lining the city's borders, their force within the city was weaker, and then they found themselves at a disadvantage. Should they meet the undead, or even be so unfortunate to meet one of the three Vampires who had appeared in the last month, they would be stranded. Calling for help would be too slow.

They would be easy pickings, vanishing from their post only until they were sucked dry of their blood, in which they would wander the streets as undead on their return, or be mutilated entirely occasionally before their corpse found it's way back to where it belonged. More than once had their been a report of a goggle-wearing man or woman strung up from a public structure with their eyes missing and their hearts removed, sometimes only half-way.

While the guild's feelings of defeat were mostly unanimous, however, two boys were adamant and determined to hunt down the source of this incredible vampirism spreading throughout their home. One Dark Swordsman and One Solar Boy, both of which not at all happy about the situation. They weren't about to give up hope either, however.

It's what they learned in their last battle for humanity. The moment one gave up hope, the battle was already lost. As such, their hope remained thicker than the toughest diamond, impossible to break, unable to be broken, both boy and man willing to scour every inch of the city alone until they found the 'wretched filth' that corrupted their home.

So far, they hadn't realized they weren't the only ones in this attempt either. Despite the reputation they carried, the similar, darker reputations from three men far from this place, would soon come to clash against that which saved the world, and the outcome would not look good from either side.

One man, of the races the Stalkers of the Night, with shimmering silver hair, and deep golden eyes, dilated and shrunk like that of a cat, was the beast. He was a creature of legend, unlike the Vampires, who proved themselves more than legend. Nearly driven to extinction by the Vampires, he fights for his kind and for that reason as well, Revenge. He is the Werewolf, and he is the night itself, glimmering fangs shining brighter than even the longest of Vampire's fangs, he is what causes the Vampires to be wary of the night, wondering if the Legends of his existence were true. He is Everett Utgardian.

Another man, who lives in a body of lies, with long, pink-and-purple hair, with long ears to mislead those who saw him, he was a fake. This fake image, the image of Lagomids, he wears for the reason of preserving the idea of them. However, he is still a fake. He moves quicker, strikes harder, and speaks sharper than any Lagomid to ever walk the face of that planet, the man who closely resembled a Lagomid, a Psuedo-Lagomid, one could say, standing side by side with the Wolf of silver in his quest to rid the night of evil, and fight for revenge. However, his revenge, is for something that no one knows. He is Slepnir.

Last of all, with his pale skin, and deep crimson eyes, he bears the fangs that show his true nature. He is one of them. He fights for the sake of continued existence, he, like the rest, fights for survival, no matter what challenges arise, no matter who he faces. Even if it were to be his own kind. He fights to save humans, and he fights to destroy them, time permit, situation permit, it all depends on where he is, and why they are fighting. He would selflessly throw himself into the battle to assist a single side in the right direction to assist the fate of the world.

He is their leader, Cross Heimdall.

Where a week ago, they may have been fighting for the Vampires or the Undead against human kind, now they fight for humans, knowing the hell they live in now, is one they don't deserve.

However, their nature... will not make their assistance welcomed.

Not by the Guild.

And Especially not by the Swordsman.

"Where are we going?"

"It's not your job to ask, it's to follow."

"I'm not obligated to stay."

"Then Don't."

The pink-haired man's boots clicked to a stop as his group marched ahead of him, the short-shorts wearing man in a light purple belly-shirt and a deep emerald overcoat with exclamation mark patches sown into the shoulder growling and crossing his arms. As he expected, his two allies stopped, and looked back at him, frowns creasing their faces. Both had silver hair, but only one hand the deep crimson eyes standard of the Vampires.

As he snarled, his fangs gleamed, but he gave up. Shaking his head, the man turned around, fixing the tie with a silver cross stitched into it and also fixing his suit coat, his slacks being left alone, they were just fine. He put a finger to his head, massaging his forehead, then dropped his hand again, a sour look still on his face as he finally spoke.

"We need to start searching too. We've spent enough time sitting around and doing nothing, haven't we? The Guild is too incompetent to get it done, and if we sit around and wait, the human population here will be Zero before we know it."

Cross Heimdall said this with no sign of hiding his agitation, though Slepnir seemed quite satisfied with this answer, stroking the inside of one of his tall, white ears, and sighing, nodding.

"Yes Sir."

He then turned to his other ally, who had stood silently so far, but the entire time he could feel the man's golden eyes on him. Despite the Vampire being his superior, and this one's... the Wolf stood as a much more intimidating figure. In opposition to the light blacks-and-reds of the Vampire teenager's more-or-less 'go to church wearing this' outfit, the Wolf wore brown and nothing else.

It wasn't that however. Dressed in what appeared to be a one-piece suit resembling a young girl's swimming suit, with a long, dark trench-coat with a tall and round collar draped around his shoulders... The werewolf stood at least a foot taller than Cross Heimdall. His waving silver-hair, his shining golden eyes... his height stood him out in opposition to his feminine and thin figure, despite how gentle he would look with these features... his face sent chills down Slepnir's spine. He knew, he knew well. Even if Utgard served Cross and him of his own will... if they were to cross him, he could rip out their spines accordingly.

The idea chilled Slepnir, making his next question to said white-tailed Werewolf come out as a stutter.

"U-Utgard, since we're looking for them... do you think you can sniff them out?"

Slepnir cursed himself, noting the stutter at the beginning of his question, and Utgard obviously noted it as well, the werewolf's thin eyes narrowing upon his shadowed, emotionless face.

He pointed his nose to the air...

And sniffed once, then twice. The enhanced senses of the wolf in him gave him many peculiar abilities that not even a Vampire could match. His Physical prowess was unparalleled, his senses were heightened beyond their maximum... and yet, they were still crushed, because of the Vampire's dark powers and abilities. The Wolves did not rely on Dark Magic, like many Vampires do. They did not rely on tools or many weapons, unless hand crafted themselves, such as the thin sword hanging from a strap on Utgard's back.

They relied on their bodies and their skill alone, skill and strength growing with age. Once, Utgard could be considered the weakest of wolves. Many years later, he was the oldest one still alive. His abilities were honed from then, and they had to be. It was the only way he survived this long, to come to this day, where he could rip out another heartless monster's throat in the name of revenge. Revenge for the family he lost. For the people he lost.

He took another deep breath, and his mouth opened, steam rising off his breath as he exhaled, his golden eyes opening, and lowering his head. His voice was strong, despite his appearance. Even with it's high-pitch, it was devoid of emotion and cruel, and this chilled even Cross about how serious the wolf could become when they tasked themselves to a mission.

"...I smell Five Vampires."

Both Cross and Slepnir had to stifle gasps. 'Five!?' Slepnir screamed in his mind, while Cross shared similar thoughts, 'That's impossible, five!? There were only supposed to be three!' They could tell their thoughts were alike as well, the two men looking at each other, and then back at Utgard, Cross asking with uncertainty in his next words.

"Utgard, are you sure? That can't be right."

"I'm more than sure. The rotten stench of death lingers around them like a cloud of blood. Even the corpses littered across the city do not bother my nose like their stench does... they are not all in the same place, but there are five of them.. not including the Dhamphir."

Utgard said this, and clenched his gloved hands tightly, silver nails gleaming when the fingers shot outwards and closed again, digging into his palm. He was anxious. He knew where to find them. He wanted to find them. He wanted revenge. Slepnir saw this more than anyone... placing a hand on the Werewolf's shoulder, he gained Utgard's eye, and the man shook his head.

"We can't just rush them. They outnumber us. No matter how powerful we are, if we were surrounded, we'd be done for." Slepnir explained it to Utgard as gently as possible, but it still made the wolf hiss.

"Then what do we do? Hide like little rats in the street?" He screeched back at Slepnir with a sudden hint of rage in his voice.

"No. We track the one who is alone. We kill them one by one, and no one escapes... but before that... we should seek 'His' assistance."

Cross winced at the thought. To go to the Dhamphir for help? Impossible, but he kept his comments to himself. Utgard was not so silent.

"Are you daft?! He'll try to kill us the moment he sets eyes on us." He snarled at Slepnir, the pink-haired man wincing back. Despite similarities they shared, most notably their Androgyny, they had a whole lot to be said differently about them as well, and that's what disturbed Slepnir the most. He didn't understand Utgard as much as he understood Cross, and so he feared him.

"Maybe so... but I think we can convince him to help us. We're all after the same thing..."

"It'd look bad if we had to kill him and the Guildsmen though."

Cross's words were like a dagger. Slepnir turned his head to the Vampire, who had his hands shoved into his pockets, crimson eyes glowing and tie with coat swaying in the wind blowing in the full moon. He was right. It was why he was the leader. Half-Action, Half-Strategy. If they did have to fight the Dark Swordsman, even if they avoided killing HIM, anyone who got caught in the cross-fire would be slain... and then they'd be targets too. It wouldn't be pretty.

"Here's a chance to test your theory. He's coming."

Utgard's words again, made Slepnir jump, snapping him from this thoughts, and immediately his tall ears caught onto the footsteps that came up the street, the many, many footsteps. One was recognizable as the rise and fall of a heel clicking against the ground. The heel of a casket-armor wearing man. With many Guildsmen and the solar boy of brown hair with him, their number totaled ten. His smell told Utgard that he was aggravated.

The others smelled of fear. The violet-haired Swordsman had obviously wanted to come alone, except for the boy. Out of his fear, the boy brought his friends with him anyways. Nine humans and one half-human. Should this situation get messy, Utgard was aware it wouldn't be difficult to deal with the rabble... though the Swordsman would prove a more difficult foe.

However, he smelled other things. Two scents among the group, neither human nor dead, were quite right.

"Hm? Who's that?"

The boy's voice was first heard when the group wasn't too far away, Slepnir lowering his sleeves to hide the golden orbs attached to the bracers on his forearm, while Utgard simply stood back, crossing his arms, allowing Cross to stand between him and his pink-haired ally. The Guild was on guard the moment the presence of the two was noted. They began moving quicker, weapons raised, but saying nothing, allowing the boy and Swordsman ahead, the Swordsman dressed in armor of black and red trim, the boy in a vest and simple shorts, his coat tied around his waist as opposed to being worn like the Swordsman.

At first they said nothing, Cross expecting questions from the two men that approached them.. but seeing the bright gold light emanating from the sunflower floating at the shoulder of the boy, and the hiss of the red winged cat at the other man's shoulder, he knew it wouldn't be so.

"Shit... Terrennials."

His dark matter would be sniffed out. He knew this right off the bat. With the way the Terrennials eyed the three, he knew there would be trouble.

"One wears the scent of a Vampire, and the Other... he has Dark Matter imbued in his body." As the cat said this, Slepnir intervened.

"Hold on, Let me Expla-"

Sword and Gun shot up alike at Slepnir's comment, aimed at the man, the two no more then ten feet away now, and the purple haired man's one uncovered eye narrowing.

"I've heard enough. You're in league with monsters. You aren't going to walk away from here alive."

That was the only warning he got.

Aaron made the first move, the brown-haired boy launching the sol-empowered casing from the long, spiked silver gun, the pink-haired man wincing at the shot, and in a blink, he twirled through the air, his two comrades leaping aside to avoid the ensuing explosion. As he spun through the air, the Psuedo-Lagomid allowed the wind to pull his sleeves back as he clenched his hands into fists, the metal joints between his fingers tightening, and the golden orbs on his arm unfolded, long claws in sets of three shooting out from his forearm.

Cross and Utgard had been right. There was no way they could of bargained with a man like Lucian. The only way they'd get out now would be to fight. Dropping out of the air, the man's target was the very man who attacked him only a few seconds ago, and Lucian, the Dark Swordsman, had anticipated this as well. A loud screeching filled the air as Slepnir's claws dragged over the flat of the jagged Vanargand's blade, Slepnir still airborne in his assault, and using this to his advantage as well.

He shot his feet out of the air, a dull thud ringing out as he planted his feet onto the Vanargand's flat and kicked off them, shooting into the air again like a bullet, the force of his kick throwing the Dark Swordsman somewhat off guard. As he regained his balance, the Guildsmen rushed past, raising their guns and firing at the two other men, as Aaron did at the moment, with one hand, the Bomber, and tucked under his arm in the other, the Witch. Utgard's silver-haired figure ducked and weaved through the air around the homing missiles that shot after him, many missiles soon joining the mid-air fray and surrounding him, but this didn't worry him. As the missiles closed in... he grinned.

Cross's head snapped up to the sky as an enormous bulb of yellow light filled it, the explosion from the missiles colliding in the air enveloping Utgard's form in smoke and sol, if only for a moment.

"I'm not a Vampire, you know."

Aaron's eyes shot wide open at the voice from the sky, and he leaped back, the earth splitting in numerous directions as the Werewolf dropped down from the air, his fist sinking into the ground and creating a small crater beneath his feet from the impact. If Aaron had been there, it'd of crushed his skull, and he knew that well enough too just by looking.

He didn't waste time recovering from the impact landing. Only a second after landing, Utgard's head snapped up, his bright golden eyes causing the Guildsmen to freeze for a split second in surprise, and that was all he needed. In a storm of fiery light, Utgard hurled himself past Aaron, the boy's eyes widening in surprise as the fiery form shot past, and into the crowd of his allies. By the time he turned around, half were already dead or dying, streaks of blood shooting through the air as the wolf's form whipped through them.

It was almost as if it wasn't even him though. Consumed in white flames, the form of a white wolf enveloped in flame, or even borne from the flame, was seen to be tearing through the men, not Utgard. A monster with deep golden eyes, completely different from the man he had seen.. but he knew it was him, even as he raised his solar gun, seeing the wolf's head turn his direction, and with the dispelling of the light around the man's body, in place of the wolf's head, was the golden-eyed, pointed eared head of the Werewolf Utgard.

Not far from them, Lucian's battle continued. Not with Slepnir, but with Cross. The man's body glowed a hue as light as his hair as he attacked the man, after watching him seize his tie and turn it into the large Scythe he wielded now, he had no doubt this was the Vampire. He roared as he lashed out, his Vanargand constantly striking the base of the scythe or it's blade, which Cross effortlessly twisted and turned to match Lucian's own movements.

That was at first. The moment Lucian's speed increased, Cross found himself having a harder time. Taking Scythe into both hands, the gnarled staff was twirled between both his hands and around his body in defensive maneuvers against swing and stab alike delivered by the Swordsman, the tip of his sword grinding off the Scythe's crooked staff, and sliding across the top side of the Scythe blade into the ground, where Cross would make his own move.

Lucian snapped his head back as the crimson blur of the blade shot past, feeling the wind splitting and hearing the 'woosh' of the sword as it blew past. He bent his knees as he leaned back and snapped his body forward, bending the knees of his stretched legs as to duck under the second Horizontal swing above the man's head, again feeling the blade's force go by. From here, he knew he could attack, and he did. With a long lunge, he stabbed at Cross's leg, the man hopping aside to avoid the strike and doing so again to dodge another one, bringing his Scythe up to block a powerful hooked swing from Lucian.

The cry from above was what gave Slepnir away, however. The Swordsman's shield shot up from his waist to his arm as Slepnir dove down, dragging his claws through the silver cross and leaping back, ready to lunge again the moment the shield fell. What he hadn't expected was the flat of the blade whipping at him the moment the shield fell. He could feel his nose breaking as he was flung aside, his pink hair whipping about him as he was struck aside with incredible force, sailing through the front window of a closed store.

"Slepnir!"

Cross cried after the man, then turning his gaze onto Lucian, his crimson eyes beginning to burn brightly... until he saw what Lucian had in his other hand.

"Fuck!"

As the dark energy spilled from the vents in the Jormungand Spear's side, Lucian howled, and released the weapon, the jets bursting open and firing the stored energy like a rocket. With this, and it's thin form, the spear was sailing for Cross's heart in an instant, only stopped, if barely, by the staff of the Vampire's Scythe as he raised it in his defense, raising it just so the spear wouldn't strike his heart, however, that wasn't the end.

Cross's feet dragged through the pavement as he shot across it with the spear's force, the stored energy of the weapon brimming and overflowing with immense force. It continued to push the Vampire through the block for a good while, cracks shooting up and down his Scythe as it began to wear under the pressure of the dark weapon, which slowed down as it's energy began to run empty, it's jets beginning to empty and spit out what energy they could.

At this rate, it would still reach him, however.

Well aware that he would regret it later, Cross gave a loud groan as he heaved upwards, fighting the Spear's force with his own, and with a snap, his Scythe split in two as the spear shot off course, blazing over his shoulder and shooting into the air freely, where it would fall some seconds later. The vampire cursed at his broken weapon, and tossed the two ends aside, where they reverted into two halves of a tie upon touching the ground, and raised his arms to meet Lucian who rushed at him, still glowing with violet light, his Vanargand enveloped in dark energy thanks to his Terrennial.

He had no weapon, he had no way to stop the Vanargand, so the most he could do until later was bob and weave between swings, still receiving small nicks from the Vanargand, even as he dodged, a small slash across his cheek, a cut over his chest and shoulder, and then a more serious wound striking his thigh as he attempted to leap aside, cursing and landing crouched, with a hand on his leg. Lucian didn't wait for Cross to recover.

Cross didn't wait for Lucian to reach him either.

Opening his left hand, a familiar form gathered in it. Lucian's eye shot wide as the Scythe shot into his open, half, the very Scythe he had destroyed moments ago, and saw, in it's surface, as cracks throughout it from his Jormungandr sealed up, dark matter flowing through the wounds. It too, was a creation of darkness. Snarling, Lucian swing his blade down, while Cross's scythe swung up to meet it, the blades ringing out as they collided, and both men sliding apart, only to lunge at each other again, ignoring the explosions either heard that left glowing, golden wounds upon buildings and streets, Aaron firing furiously at the Werewolf who mocked him from afar.

"Are you all having fun?"

Everything stopped then and there. The voice came from every direction, and even.. it even felt as if it was in their minds, a dark cloud suddenly coming over their thoughts. It was because of this that they knew where the voice originated, from the pull on their very hearts hissed at them. Turning their heads, one by one, Aaron, Utgard, Lucian, Cross, and the slowly recovering Slepnir, all saw the five figures standing on the rooftop above.

Three stood easily recognizable.

One, the nameless Phantom who was the beginning of these terror filled nights in Acuna, with wiry gray hair, draped in dark violet clothes over his incredibly lean, tall figure. His fangs gleamed brightly in the moonlight from above them in his sick grin.

Second, the psychotic 'Scientist' Vampire, Jonas, who only helped reassure the fears of the people, with orange-hair, and dressed in blood stained lab robes. He struck fear into the people by seizing control of public broadcasts for his sick television shows where he would publicly mutilate people. He had, from the fresh stains of blood, been busy here as well.

Lastly, the also nameless woman who Lucian had met not long ago. He still had bruises from when she kicked him, the emerald eyed vampire winking in the man's direction and brushing her dusk hair out of her eyes. The wink made Lucian cringe. Her nails were stained with blood, as were the veils draped over her voluptuous body. Jonas wasn't the only one having fun.

The other two, he did not recognize.

It wasn't hard to figure out who was the leader, however. They stood in a line, the five of them, and standing in the direct center, was the man they all regarded to be the savior of vampire kind. He was the man who had spoken... and obviously, from his appearance, he was obviously too dumb to realize what danger he was putting himself in by showing himself here.

He stood even taller than the Phantom's nearly Seven foot tall form, above all his disciples in his height, but he was not bone thin, not like him. He was broad, and powerful shouldered, his pose unwavering and strong, as well as his expression, a profound smugness found in his sneer toward the ones quarreling below. His eyes were more than just crimson. Dyed with a blood red, his very pupils radiated with dark matter, and the very white of his eyes vanished into black, crimson and black staring into the very souls of his victims.

His fangs were long, and great, larger than any Lucian had ever seen, and they clicked together silently as the man began to laugh. It disgusted Lucian, though, to see he shared the same color of hair with this bastard. The man's hair was long and violet, even longer than the female disciple he commanded, whirling freely about his body with an unseen wind, floating upwards, sideways, anyway it wished to be when it was so.

His skin was less of an azure, as he noticed when he moved, but more of a pale green, standing out even further among his disciples, it made the man assume this being was not even a Vampire, but an immortal. However, the fangs sticking out of the man's mouth made him think otherwise of that.

The vampire stood strongly, arms crossed over his chest, feet planted in the ground, he grunted to himself and leaned his head back with the same sneer at the rabble below. His cape, black and red as the dark matter he wielded, with numerous cuts in it's end, whirled with him as he began to move, his thick boots clicking against the ground as he walked, these boots covering up to his knees, requiring his dark pants to be tucked into them.

Lucian could see the man's vest as he descended from the rooftop in a float, the symbol of darkness embedded into the vest... this man believed in the Vampire's will in his own sort of way, the man assumed. This would all change when he would hear the man's words.

"You humans devote so much time to killing us and tracking us down... that maybe it is good that I came when I did. To drive our very race to extinction, the sin you assume us of, when we need you humans just as much as you need us, even if you do not see it... Dumas had the foundation for a perfect world, and you go and destroy it... As a result. We are here, to destroy your home as well."

The vampire spoke adamantly and boldly as he finally touched down unto the ground, his dark eyes glowing with his grin, the crimson from them darting about as he looked upon all his watchers.

"And you must be the ones who stopped him.." He smiled, looking upon Lucian, then Aaron, crossing his arms again, and closing one eye, rings beginning to form on the other eye as it remained open... then he looked at Cross.

"...Ah, if it isn't the Bastard son and his little ragtag group as well..." As he said this, Cross snarled, raising his staff, but in defense rather than offense. Lucian glaced at Cross momentarily... then back at the Vampire.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Me? ..I'm nobody important... just a man seeking to spare Vampire lives. You may call me Mercadio, however."

The vampire crossed one arm over his waist in a short bow, keeping his one eye open, then lifted his head again, smiling.

"I am not here to fight you on this night, contrary to what your body language tells me, Dark Swordsman."

This only caused Lucian's hand to further tighten on the Dark Sword as a result, and Mercadio shook his head, the violet-haired Vampire Lord chuckling to himself... then becoming stern.

"Listen closely. I will only say this once, and you better listen good. This city belongs to us, and soon, all of this region will. I'm giving you one chance to leave with your lives. Take what you want, take who you want, I don't care. Just leave. This city will belong to us, whether you fight us or not, so I'm showing you this act of mercy simply to show that we are more than barbarians. Pack up your belongings and go, Dark Swordsman. To where? I don't know, but I can't have you staying here and interrupting my plans either. If you do agree to go, I can direct you to a city that will be left alone as our influence begins to spread across the world, however, that is the most I can do, the decision is yours."

He then paused for Lucian's answer, but he did not expect one, the Vampire's ringed eye now glowing brightly as he waited, Lucian lowering his head for a moment... and baring his teeth.

"ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID!?"

The man leaped through the air as he brought the Vanargand around, and anticipating this assault as well, the ringed eye of the man shot wide open, and with a chant that the man could not decipher, a red flash blinded him. It more than blinded him. As the chant screeched from the Vampire's neck, a crimson wave of darkness formed and launched from his eye, colliding with the man and hurling him across the way, through the stone and wood roof of the building on the other side of the street, the rest beginning to collapse as the Dark Swordsman fell into the building. Mercadio simply laughed.

"Ah... so hasty. I had a feeling you'd turn me down.. but I'll give you all a chance to think about it. You have one week to make your decision.. until then, we will leave your city relatively alone... however, in one week from today, if you have not chosen to leave..."

The vampire's other eye opened, and he hissed.

"You will die."

Then they were gone. In a swirl of dark matter, each Vampire shot into the night sky.. in a manner very familiar to Aaron. Then, something he hadn't expected happen. At his hip, the mobile unit Alice gave him as a back-up began to ring, as did Lucian's own as the man began to crawl from under the rubble.

"Alice?"

Aaron asked this quietly... only to call everyone's eyes to him when he cried,

"What!?"

In orbit above the planet, beyond the golden sunflower satellite that orbited the planet, between the space from the moon to the earth... a dark shape loomed, a massive, multiple-structured monstrosity of steel and metal, with a single eye in it's center. A Black Castle floated in space, and obviously, Alice knew what that meant, warily relaying it.

"It's why the Planet Eater was in such bad condition when they moved it! They scrapped the damn thing for parts and made their own ship!" The pink-haired Lagomid screamed into the phone as she used a single hand to press numerous buttons across screens in the ship, cursing.

"...one week huh?"

Utgard eventually mumbled, biting his lip, and looking over to his comrades, Cross helping Slepnir stand, the man's arm injured, bleeding from being impaled on an object he fell on inside the store.

"..Then let's make our exit as well."

As Lucian turned around, he yelled after the three as they vanished in a storm of white fire, the form of a white wolf shooting through the air and vanishing visible for a split moment as Lucian called after them.

"HEY, WAIT!"

Once they were gone, he cursed, slamming his fist into the rubble around him, before pushing up to his feet, looking over to where the Vampires were once as well.

Everything had just turned for the worse.

Again.

What a perverted and twisted view of the world those vampires had.


	7. BE A MAN!

This WAS Going to be chapter Eight, but lack of Chapter Seven causes change.  
I am left in Despair.

Inspired by 'To Be A Man' from 'Mulan' the feature film.

Four days left, and only counting down.

Since the days Mercadio had appeared, the undead events occurring in the city had calmed down to the point where in the last three days, the city was free of dead and dying within the second of the three. He had held to his promise. He would give the Dark Swordsman one week to make his decision, and would give him the peace to think to do it. The Guild eliminated any of the ghouls stalking the city without issue, and oddly, without fear of death looming over their shoulders, despite how strange the feeling was.

The Death had left the city. The Darkness looming with the rise of the moon was now pure, no longer carrying the cloud of evil that the Vampires wrought. The cloak of death surrounding Acuna had faded, and everyone could breath a sigh of relief, for they knew the Vampires were gone. However, no one knew that within the next four days, they would return, and when they did, this time they would be here to stay, whether Lucian agreed to their demands or not. The retreat of death from the city was only a temporary one, and five warriors within the city knew this better than anyone. Preparations had to be made.

No one had any intention of leaving. Rather than leave their home to die, they would choose to die themselves protecting it, rather than just give it up to be bled dry by the undead. Yes, preparations had to be made, but not just for themselves, but for the people. They had to be evacuated, because what was soon to begin was no ordinary battle. By staying, another war of Vampire and Guildsman was about to begin. The people were the main priority of the Guild, and they had to protect them at all costs.

However, they were not the main priorities of others. For the group of three lead by the Vampire named Cross, their main priorities were to fortify their own strengths and abilities, being quick to leave Acuna without warning. To where, no one was aware, but they had every intention of becoming stronger, no matter what lengths they had to go to get there. They would return when they needed to, because if they didn't attain their goal, what was the point of going back?

Last of all, the main priority of the Dark Swordsman was his partner. Lucian had no doubt in his skills, and he could use Sheridan, the former apprentice to the Baron Stoker, and his alchemy, to enhance his weapons with the proper materials. However, his problem lay with the Solar boy, his partner in battle. The boy was young, an inexperienced, even with his gifts and his heritage. He knew not how to wield any sort of weapon other than a gun, and even his skills with a gun... they were sub-standard compared to the ones Lucian himself had as Sartana. The boy needed to be trained... but refusing to pick up another gun, there was only one thing the Swordsman could do.

He had to leave the boy in the hands of the guild.

The brown-haired boy shivered as the morning dew stuck to his bare arms as the two walked through the streets of Old Culiacan, Lucian ahead of Aaron, the violet-haired man's body language speaking of urgency, while the boy could be seen to be exhausted. He had slept, but had been woken early by the Swordsman, in order to be lead quickly out of the Ring of Destiny inn, where they had stayed the night before. Aaron didn't understand why they had gone there the night before, or way Lucian was so determined to get wherever they needed to go so early, but he'd find out soon enough.

Aaron could not resist yawning as he went on, tightening his red scarf, the one and only remainder of his family he had left, and using it to keep himself warm. He could hardly remember his father, and though he felt disturbed at knowing who killed him, unlike Lucian, he felt no obligation for revenge. Even untrained as he was, even inexperienced as he was, back then, he knew what he was fighting for. Now things were about to change. His luck wouldn't help him anymore. He needed real training, and with what little time they had... they could only afford two days. Hopefully Aaron's knack of adapting to whatever situation he was in would come in handy here, because he'd need it.

After a while, Aaron began to recognize the paths they walked. He recognized turns and paths, cracks in walls and streets, marks that all pointed to one thing. The Guild Headquarters. It wasn't long before the building came into view, winding stairs leading up the tall structure that actually went far underground in many directions, for miles. It was fortunate, for this hideout was a perfect training ground, and in the past two years since the defeat of Dumas, he had often used it for further lessons from his superiors, Ernest, Kay, and Bea, the three top Gunslingers of the guild. Even with his skill in many guns... the skill they bore with their one and only favorites still far exceeded his.

That was going to change.

"Go on Kid."

Aaron stopped once he realized that the violet-haired Dark Swordsman was no longer ahead of him, turning to see the one brown eye of the eye-patch wearer trained on him. He stood, arms crossed, the morning winds with the dull gray overcast swinging his coat's tail around him, tickling his face with moisture from the clouds above. The armored man wasn't going to budge. His feelings on the guild he once dedicated his life were not very high. He was a changed man from back then, and so had his ideals changed.

Aaron was not going to try and convince him otherwise. All past attempts ended in failure, and more than once even earned him a fist in the cheek when he got a little overboard. He'd definitely learned that lesson, so with a nod, the boy turned, and began running toward the entrance of the building, his orange boots clicking against the empty ground as he went, beginning up the stairs and running up them in two steps at the time, Lucian watching him until he eventually vanished into the door in the side of the building and mumbled to himself.

"Good luck, Aaron."

"Oy, look who it is!"

Ernest seemed excited as Aaron began down the steps further into the Guild hideout, examining the dull green stones as he went, until he finally reached the open area which served as the 'first floor' of the hideout. Standing by one door at the end of the hall, among the many that lined the walls of the floor, standing on either side of the narrow trench wedged between the stones that water ran through, were Ernest, Kay, and Bea.

Had they been expecting him? As he neared them, Aaron began to slow down, seeing how they all stood expectantly. Obviously Lucian had contacted them beforehand. The silvery-gray haired Ernest stood leaned back in his dark green coat, his elbow propped on the Dragoon, the silver rectangle of a weapon, which he had leaned against the ground, using it to help himself stand.

Bea, running a finger through her short blond hair, picked up her Witch, the numerous vents in the gun glowing with solar energy, and smiled, leaning it on her red vested shoulder. She stood with the gun in one arm, her other hand in the pocket of her skin-tight pants, calm and cool-headed.

Kay, last of all, stood arms crossed, but in such a fashion that his hands drew back the edges of his coat, exposing the two Ninja guns hidden within his coat, the letters engraved in the guns glowing furiously within his coat. The dog-headed man sniffed, and looked to Ernest stalwartly, having nothing to say.

Yeah, they'd been expecting him. As the boy drew closer, Ernest held out his hand, and chuckled.

"Gun, Boy."

Aaron blinked.

His Knight? But how was he supposed to train if he couldn't use the solar gun? It was his only medium for his powers, which were supplied by the Golden sunflower Terrennial, toasty, who rest asleep within the gun at the moment, but Ernest knew better than he did. He'd just have to trust him. Drawing the weapon from his belt, Aaron stared at the familiar gun, his fingers flipping over it's familiar grip, admiring it's structure, the familiar 'K' engraved in the gun glowing dully, before handing it over to Ernest, who nodded, and holstered the gun at his own waist, then taking a step back toward the door behind him.

"You've done real well to get this far on your own, boy, but this time around, we won't be around to help you and Lucian all the time, so we're going to have to get drastic if we want your skills to develop faster."

The man said this as he drew his goggles over his eyes, the green goggles seeming to gleam over his own dark eyes, and he opened the door behind him, being the first to go in, with Bea, then Kay soon to follow. Aaron entered last, to see himself entering a dimly lit room, in which he could see very little, but at it's far side, he could see what looked like glass on the wall, and Ernest, standing next to another open door. The silver-haired man nodded in it's direction, and Aaron slowly entered it... pitch-black rooms weren't usually the first thing he was most eager thing to enter, but it wouldn't be dark long.

As the door slammed shut behind him, the Solar boy was nearly blinded as the powerful lights in the room turned on, flooding the incredible room with light, the room being at least thirty feet tall, and twenty feet wall. The room was huge, but more then that... each wall had at least one door embedded in it, each marked with a skull. Aaron swallowed his saliva in mild fear of what could be hidden behind it.

"Don't lose your head boy."

Ernest's voice blared over speakers from the roof of the room, echoing all about and causing Aaron to jump, the boy looking around, then back at the wall behind him, seeing the Three Gunslingers standing behind the glass wall.

"Alright boy, pick up that stick over there."

From behind the glass, gray-haired man pointed, Aaron following his finger until he saw a long length of wood sitting on the tiled floor of the room, Aaron jogging over and picking it up, the smooth staff in his hand being light, but it's length through him off as he tried to practice with it. Attempting to spin the staff in his hand as he had seen Lucian do with the Jormungand, he only ended up smacking himself in the chin and dropping the staff, Ernest scowling and waiting for Aaron to pick up the staff again before continuing.

"Alright boy, I'm going to come straight out with you. You can't always rely on the Terrennials to have your back, you hear? We Gunslingers draw power from the sun burning inside of our own bodies, that which you have yet to find. We draw the power of the sun from within our own bodies and channel it through our bodies and weapons with our will alone. You've yet to do that. That's not to say that what you've done is an incredible achievement. Thanks to Master Toasty, who fought alongside your father to augment his already incredible solar power, you were capable of defeating not only the Duke Dumas, but even the Immortal Polidori, but our enemies are only going to get more powerful, and until you can reach into your own powers... well, we can't rely on you.

"That's what this is for. If we simulate a real battle, it should awaken something in you that'll help you draw out your own 'sun', and allow you to better wield the powers of the elements."

"Simulate?"

Aaron barely said this before he jumped again as a loud buzzing filled the room, a sort of alarm filling the air momentarily before a loud grinding filled his ears. It took Aaron a moment to track it, but when he finally did, he found the noise coming from the door on the wall to his back, the door beginning to slide upwards until it vanished into the room. Within the doorway, only darkness remained... but then pair after pair of deep crimson and yellow eyes opened in the dark, jaws snapping and hissing filling the air as the creatures awoke.

Aaron could not believe his eyes as the first undead, a ghoul, jaw creaking and snapping shut repeatedly, came lumbering from within the dark room, and upon seeing Aaron, it screeched. It was hungry, and there was only one target here. Him. It threw out it's arms as it began charging right at Aaron, talons gleaming in the light with rotted flesh molting under them, and rotten yellow fangs parting as they readied to tear into their prey. Aaron took initiative. He didn't know how to properly use the weapon, but he improvised anyways. It's what he was good at.

With the tip of the staff, he would shove it right into the open mouth of the ghoul, the force of his jab ripping right out of the back of the monster's rotted skull, it's brain pierced, it would turn to ash right around the weapon, but that wasn't the end of it. Two more came at him as quickly as the first one fell, Aaron gripping the staff with both hands and whipping the staff at one's head, striking it with such force that it flipped about and crashed into the floor head-first, then turning and swinging the staff down on the skull of the next. It's head hit the ground so hard it was turned to mulch right then and there, and then ash.

However, that took too long. As he brought up his staff again, another ghoul lunged onto him, it's claws digging into his skin and drawing long trails through his flesh, leaving rips in his vest and long, bloody lines in his torso, in a fit of rage from the pain, Aaron's legs shot out and knocked the ghoul into the one he had knocked aside earlier as it rose, both hissing as they fell. With pained groans, more stumbled at him while he was down, and he cursed.

If he had been wielding a gun, things would of been a lot easier... but then he thought of Lucian. Lucian had been in this very situation many times before, and he took it much better than he was right now. His sword... it delivered death in single, powerful strokes, glowing a crimson red with the dark power that flowed through his veins. It's silver edge cut through them, whether tinted by his dark powers, or not, and Aaron frowned.

The weapon he wielded was not a sword, but he still had to make use of it. He did not have Lucian's strength... but he had his own strength! Kicking up onto his feet, and seeing the Ghouls making their way toward him, he made use of his staff's length, lashing out in a broad sweep at the legs of the undead, striking the legs right off of the rotting corpses and leaving them crawling on the ground. The ones to follow would trip over their brothers, making it easier for Aaron to finish them, smashing the bodies and skulls of each animated corpse until only thick piles of dust remained. Aaron panted heavily as he finished the last of the corpses... only to hear a familiar buzz, a second door opening to his side, and the boy hopping back, eyes moving back onto the first door, which still held undead.

Things were about to get harder, he imagined. However, he didn't imagine it'd get this much harder. From the second door, numerous skeletons wielding bows and swords began to drag forward, the dark matter animating their skinless bodies acting as false muscles to move them, giving them the force to live. To live, and to kill. They came at him now, just as the undead did, Aaron striking at the shoulder of one undead before smashing his head in to throw his guard off, then swinging into the ribs of an approaching skeleton, smashing them into powder... but it kept on getting closer.

They were animated by dark power. It would take much more than just physical destruction to destroy them, unless it somehow destroyed most of their body in the process.

Again, he didn't hold that sort of strength.

'Damnit!'

Aaron cursed as he leaped back, taking the staff into one hand as the sword passed beneath his feet, twirling it and taking it into both hands, bashing off the skeleton's head, which flew and smashed against the far wall, the creature's body bumbling for a good distance before finally collapsing against the ground, turning to dust. Of course, there were others not far behind.

'Damnit... what's the point of this?!' But then he stopped. He had to think. What was the point of all this?

As the undead began to surround Aaron, drawing ever closer with each step, his staff began to lower.

It was a question he had not considered for years. Why now, was he still fighting, when the Vampires regime had already fallen two years before? Why was he still involved in all this when he had already slain Polidori, and even defeated the Duke of Vampires, who even if he still lived, lost his powers, in a way, avenging his father's loss. Why?

'...Because these are people I care about. Because these people live under the same sun that I do... we all live in the same world, and we all care about it, even if we have our differences. Human, or Vampire, or Wolf, or anything... if we're all willing to fight for this world, we're all equal in the light of the sun! That is how this world works! That is the way...'

Aaron lifted his head, gripping his staff tighter as he did, a faint gold outline beginning to surround his eyes as he raised the weapon, taking it into both hands again, and watching the Skeletons with swords in hand begin to approach him, raising their weapons as if to strike.

'That's the way of our world! My father knew this better than anyone... He was willing to fight for everyone, even to die for them, because he cared about this world more than anyone... and he cared about it's people. He loved the sun, and he loved this world... and now he's with me, in this scarf! His will is in me, with my own, to guide me into the future, and to guide those lives he created a future for, just as I am going to! This world is warmed by one sun, one sun we all live under... and for that... I'm going to fight!'

With a great cry, Aaron leaped right into the fray, spinning his staff overhead and striking off numerous undead skulls and limbs into dust around him as he struck, landing and immediately going on offense, turning on one foot to his right and impaling a ghoul on his staff, and swinging him into his allies around him, the corpse turning to dust around his weapon after a few seconds. He then turned to address the immediate threat of skeletons, using his blade to stave off the lunging swords and weaving between thrusts at him with a growl.

His eyes glowed brighter the more he went into the battle, pushing himself further and further into the battle, lowering his defenses, allowing wounds to be inflicted on him as if he didn't care. Strangely, as well, he didn't. As a blade grazed his side after a sidestep from another attack, he lunged forward, feeling the blade in his wound, yet ignored it, slamming his staff into the skeleton's spine, snapping it in two, and then yanking the staff right upwards, a loud crunch ringing out as his staff snapped the creature's skull in half.

His force only continued to increase as he flung himself among the continuing hordes of dead with only his staff in hand, and soon, even that would be gone, and he knew it as well. Numerous nicks marked his staff from where he blocked strikes from claw and sword alike from his foes, webs of cracks shooting up his staff as he struck down his foes, attempting to use no more than two or more blows, but that seemed to grow easier with each passing moment. What was fueling him? What drove him so madly? These sort of questions bombarded the Guildsmen as they watched Aaron furiously strike at his foes. They knew they would have to intervene soon, or he would die. At least, that's what they assumed.

"What!?"

Bea cried out in shock after Aaron's staff finally snapped under the pressure of enemy blows, but that was far from the reason. No, the blond woman wore an expression of utter shock, as did her comrades in the next moments.

When the staff finally broke, Aaron did not despair. No, his faint smirk only grew broader with the glow in his eyes, the man throwing his two halves of the staff aside with a laugh, lunging forward, and with his bare hand, ripping right through the upper-half of a skeleton, ashes sailing through the air around his arm. No one was sure they had seen it right.

The second time, they definitely saw it. Aaron roared as the Sol flowed around his palm, the golden emblem in the back of his palm glowing brightly with the energy swirling around his arm, this energy burning at the corpses he struck until they turned into nothing, every augmented strike filling Aaron with even more confidence, summoning forth even more energy. He had found his reason. He had found his will to fight. He had found his Sun.

He spun about, golden light shooting around his forearms as he bounded out, burning through the numerous undead seeking to cleave into him, the Sol Emblem in the back of his palm only glowing even brighter as he called even more of his energy to the surface. Once, he even channeled the energy into his legs, golden light flowing around them, and launching him far into the air with it, dropping down and crushing numerous animated corpses like a fireball, the Sol's light rising in a massive storm around the impact point, tongues of light reaching out and shearing through more of the dead.

Soon nothing remained but a pile of ashes, a furious Aaron standing in the center of this pile with his legs parted and arms drawn out, Sol swirling up and down his arms, rising from his hands, and spinning around his body. One final buzz rang out, and with the other two doors closing, Aaron knew that his final test was upon him. Turning to the last door, which happened to be directly in front of him now, the floor shook from the heavy footsteps of the creature as it began to march forward, the familiar steel-gray of the Golem coming into view as it started forward, eyes glowing as they locked on Aaron.

He knew exactly what would come next.

Curling up, the stone golem shot at Aaron with the force of a cannon ball in a furious roll at him, and to meet it, Aaron's arms shot out, drawing Sol to the front of his arms to enhance his strength and to muffle the catch as it shot forward, a great thud ringing out as if a rock had been thrown at something as the Golem slammed into his hands, a wince creeping along the boy's expression as the spinning golem skinned his hands, but he ignored it, instead clamping his fingers down. At least, he attempted to do so.

His nails cracked and snapped in his first attempt to catch the creature, blood shooting from his hands across the stains, and his fingers slipped free, but he didn't give up. He couldn't now. His fingers shot closed again, and with a growl, snapped between the clumps of rocks composing the golem's body, a sudden lurch signaling the stop of it's turns when Aaron's sol enhanced hands gripped it's form, the sol creeping into it's dark mattered filled body and beginning to burn it from the inside. It was more than this, however, as with a growl, Aaron began to lift the creature, pouring the last of his energy into the next actions as he went. Even if he found his true light, he could only last for so long before exhausting himself, but he would not go down without a fight.

With a final roar, he lifted the massive golem over his head, listening to it squawk in fear and could smell the burning of it's body as smoke rolled from in it, but these only drove him to try even harder. Using the last of his strength, he drew his arms back, and took one great lunge, and snapping his arms forward like a slingshot, the Golem hurled across the room, it's body unfolding just in time to slam into the far wall, bursting into hundreds of miniature pieces, and scattering apart across the ground, posing no more threat.

Letting his bloodied hands fall, Aaron grinned at the damage he had dealt, admiring the great dent he left in the wall, and chuckled, leaning his head back, and eventually falling right to the ground, sitting and laughing to himself, the Sol emblem on his hand still glowing brightly, and said.

"Yeah... That's why I fight. You can't beat that."

He hardly noticed Ernest entering the room as his mind began to wander, but when the man tapped his shoulder, the boy looked back with a lazy smile, seeing Ernest grinning back at him.

"Good job Aaron. You've passed the first test."

Aaron's smile died then.

'First' test?

He wasn't one to normally curse... but... shit.

"...Though I'm proud to say you've done some growing, I've seen Aaron. Your father would be proud, You're a man now, kid." Ernest continued, scratching his cheek, and watching that innocent smile return to the boy's face, the brown-haired boy laughing happily in response.

Even if that was true, he still had some growing up to do.


End file.
